College shows higher enrollment

Thursday, August 29, 2002

North Platte -- Certified Public Accountants from the firm, Dana J. Cole completed an audit of enrollments for the 2002 year at Mid-Plains Community College Area. Their findings indicate that the institution's Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) rose 5.29 percent over last year's figures. In hard numbers, there were 1644.85 FTE recorded for the 2002-year and a gain of 82.64 FTE from 1562.21 in 2001.

Full-time Equivalent numbers are what the Federal Government and the State of Nebraska use to determine state aid and also allows institutional comparisons in a method that quantifies their sizes equally. For example, some institutions have high numbers of part-time students taking anywhere from 1 to 11 hours of classes. Other schools may have high full-time students taking 12 to 21 hours of classes. Therefore headcount, while interesting, really doesn't tell the full size of an institution. To arrive at FTE, the institution divides the total number of credit hours completed by their students by 30. But there are twists to determining what credit hours may be used. For example, in most cases, community service class hours are excluded. But continuing education for medical or childcare persons can be used.

The auditors only review FTE numbers by institution therefore, MPCCA's FTE figures compiled by campus must be determined by Dr. Ford Craig in MPCCA's Research and Planning Department. They indicate that the McCook Campus FTE remained virtually unchanged from last year. They represent 513 FTE for the year. The campus recorded 510 FTE in 2001.

The North Platte campuses showed most of the increase with 79.64 in FTE. They recorded 1131.85 this past year over 1052.21 in 2001.

"While we are extremely pleased with our results, we all know that we have enormous untapped opportunities in our service area," said Dr. Carlton Williams, Interim President of the Mid-Plains Community College Area. "Additions such as our Valentine Extended Campus and the expansion of offering our Welding Program in McCook are just two areas that will positively impact our enrollments next year.

"We will strive to uncover more possibilities in the near future."

For more information, please contact the Public Information Office.

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