President of the American Samoa Community College, Dr. Rosevonne Makaiwi Pato, says a drop in enrollment at ASCC is the same trend throughout the United States.
And one of the contributing factors is online programs now available in the territory.
For Academic Year 2012-2013, ASCC’s enrollment was 3860. For 2014-2015 it was 3109; for 2015-2016 it was 2,696.
For 2016-2017 ASCC’s enrollment was 2759 and for 2017-2018 for the fall and spring semester only, enrollment stands at 2019.
Looking at the reasons for the decline, the college president said ASCC has looked into numerous reasons but pointed out this is the same trend throughout the US “as online programs become more and more feasible for students to take courses at their convenience and with greater access to technology of the times.”
For summer 2017 there was an increase of 53% in enrollment which coincided with financial aid being extended for summer courses as well.
The college president expects numbers to go up for the 2018 summer classes because financial aid is also available.
According to ASCC stats, while total enrollment has dropped there’s an increase in full time students vs part time students.
For 2017 there were 615 full time students and only 480 part timers. For the year before there were 702 fulltime students and 553 part time students.
Dr. Makaiwi Pato pointed out that a recent story on our news broadcast that ASCC has not received subsidies on time was not true.
She said, “Since January of 2018 the subsidies have been received in a timely manner and are currently up to date.”
But she said ASCC had a decrease in its local budget subsidy for the past fiscal year and the college is awaiting the possibility of a supplemental budget to assist in other areas.
“When I stated in a recent cabinet meeting that ‘although ASCC continues to be challenged with finances, we have formed partnerships with agencies and other government departments,’ this was a very true statement that allows for ASCC to look at other means to secure funding,” said the president.
“Our enrollment numbers do not account for all the other ways ASCC brings in revenues such as in trainings, mini-workshops, conferences, and community and grant funded programs. Please know that by just looking at enrollment numbers, this does not show the bigger picture of other means in which ASCC addresses the needs of the community.”
