Alabama community college enrollment nears 100,000 for-credit students

Alabama’s community colleges are on track to enroll over 100,000 students in for-credit courses this fall despite barriers, according to data presented to the system’s board of trustees Wednesday morning.

Neil Scott, vice chancellor for student success for the Alabama Community College System (ACCS), said there are 99,083 students enrolled in for-credit courses for the Fall 2026 semester as of Tuesday, a 1.9% increase over the final Fall 2025 headcount. 

“We still have time to register more students, so I’m really crossing my fingers for 100,000. We’re hearing colleges talk about still having some more dual enrollment students that they’re working on getting registered,” he said.

Scott said students are enrolled in almost 834,000 credit hours, a 2.7% increase over the final Fall 2025 credit hour production. 

Community college enrollment in Alabama has grown at a faster rate than the national average in previous years, but Scott said it is likely slowing this year due to a new identity verification software colleges had to implement for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application.

“This has been a little bit of a challenging year from an enrollment standpoint. There have been some environmental things that our colleges have had to weather,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of talk right now coming out of Washington D.C. and certainly out of Montgomery related to application fraud, financial aid fraud, and people taking advantage of resources like Pell Grant with bad intentions. And so we saw that challenge.”

According to Higher Ed Dive, students are still enrolling in community colleges more than public or private four-year universities, but the rate is slowing. Community colleges nationwide saw a 4.6% enrollment increase from Spring 2023 to 2024; a 5.2% increase from Spring 2024 to 2025; and a 3.1% increase from Spring 2025 to 2026. 

The FAFSA identity verification software was introduced in April, so colleges may not see the impact of the new software until this semester. 

“As with any new application software, any new barriers for students to enroll, that is something that our colleges have embraced,” Scott said. “We’re curious to see what impact that might have on enrollment.”

ACCS Chancellor Jimmy Baker said in an interview after the meeting that high enrollment proves the quality of a community college education.

“There was a time when the community college system was not viewed as being quality, and I think that’s old stories,” Baker said. “We’ve got good management across the system that is giving people a good buy for their work, and they know that. That’s the genesis for increasing enrollment – it’s worth going to pay your money to get an education, or training.”