Enrollment in Alabama’s public community colleges surpasses 100,000 students

Enrollment in Alabama Community College System schools hit the highest number of students for the fall semester in over a decade.

Neil Scott, vice chancellor of student success for ACCS, told the Board of Trustees that the combined student headcount across the system is over 100,000 students — a 3.5% increase over the final enrollment count for fall 2025.

“That’s an increase of 3,421 students,” Scott said. “Sixteen of our colleges are ahead in headcount, and these students are enrolled in over 836,000 credit hours. That’s a 3% increase over the final fall 2025 number. Over 24,000 more credit hours being produced by our students or taken by our students.”

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

Scott told board members that the overall headcount includes duplicate students, or students who take classes at more than one community college. The unduplicated number also reached 100,000 students.

“Our total unduplicated headcount across the community college system is 100,262 as of yesterday (Tuesday). That is the highest unduplicated fall headcount that we have had since 2010,” Scott told board members.

Final enrollment numbers for the system will be available in November. During fall 2025, the system had over 98,000 students, a 9.6% increase over the final fall 2024 headcount.