States face a growing challenge: How to expand access to affordable bachelor's degrees while meeting workforce demands in high-need industries. As employers increasingly seek workers with four-year credentials, policymakers are looking for ways to help more students earn bachelor's degrees without taking on excessive debt.
One strategy gaining traction is the community college bachelor's degree, or CCB. Once relatively uncommon, these programs are now offered at more than 200 institutions and produced more than 16,000 graduates in 2024 alone.
Twenty-four states now authorize community college bachelor's degrees. CCB legislation is being considered in even more states but remains a somewhat contested policy lever, as evidenced by recent deliberations in Iowa, which passed a pilot bill in the House but failed to pass the Senate. As policymakers debate the adoption and/or proliferation of CCBs, it’s important to outline the known implications of these tools and identify what research tells us about their impact.
What the Research Shows Community College Bachelor's Programs Reach Students Often Underserved by Traditional Universities
Compared to students in traditional 4-year programs, CCB students are more likely to be older, identify as members of a racially minoritized group and come from low-income backgrounds. They can be effective tools to increase enrollment of students less likely to pursue bachelor’s degrees and a cost-effective way to help states meet their college attainment goals.
Importantly, these increases do not come at the cost of their associate degree programming or their public and private, nonprofit 4-year peers. As such, despite concerns to the contrary, CCB-granting institutions remain committed to the historical principles and functions of the community college sector and complement the work of other institutions.
They Align Closely With Workforce Needs
State legislation authorizing CCBs typically requires the programs to be connected directly to a workforce need. As such, most CCBs are “applied” in nature (e.g., Bachelor of Applied Science). In recognition of chronic shortage areas, the leading areas of study include business, health professions, education and technological services.
Economic Returns Show Promise, but More Research is Needed
Like other 4-year degrees, CCBs lead to substantial employment and pay bumps compared to students with associate degrees, but the trends between CCB and traditional 4-year degree students are less clear. Evidence from select programs in Washington show some parity between the groups; other national examinations show wage penalties for CCB graduates, while recent analyses of CCBs in Canada show significant premiums for CCB graduates compared to others. Importantly, all data show substantial variation in economic outcomes among discipline and student characteristics. More work is needed in this arena to further clarify the economic returns to CCBs.
Institutions (and States) Must Consider Potential Financial Implications
Expanding toward bachelor’s degrees can include some start-up costs, including faculty, academic services and other student supports. Though some of these costs have sometimes been borne by state coffers, institutions have also implemented differential tuition policies to increase tuition revenue. However, CCBs remain cheaper than comparable 4-year degrees and CCB-granting schools remain financially healthy. Taken together, the research suggests that community college bachelor's degrees can expand educational opportunity and address workforce shortages. However, their ultimate success likely depends on the financial structures supporting them to ensure programs remain affordable and well-resourced.
Key Decisions for Policymakers
Just like other academic programs, CCBs are only as effective as the processes put in place to approve, implement and evaluate them. Policymakers should consider how best to attune their CCB approaches across these domains to their states’ specific needs. States vary in their approach to CCB authorization, primarily in:
- Who Should Approve New Programs?
- How Should States Demonstrate Workforce Need?
- How Broad Should Authorization Be?
- How Should Programs Be Funded?
In places like Ohio or Florida, the statewide boards manage CCB approval processes, while states like Michigan vest the decision making with local or college boards. All CCB authorization processes require evidence that the proposed program(s) will meet unmet employer needs.
A recent report further shows authorization processes also ask for evidence of multiple measures of program quality and resource use, though specific data requests differ by state. For example, Oklahoma and Washington require structured plans for program evaluation, quality assurance and improvement; Ohio and Oregon collect evidence of engagement and alignment with industry partners’ standards. Most processes also enforce oversight of duplication/competition of local 4-year programs.
States must also make decisions about the scope and implementation of their CCB endeavors. States like Michigan have narrowed their CCB focus to only allowing four specific degrees at select institutions, while states like Florida have widespread adoption, allowing all colleges to apply to offer CCBs without limiting to a specific degree program.
Some places have used pilot programs to test the CCB waters, initially approving very specific programs at certain institutions before broadening their approach. Regardless of their scope, state leaders have also wrestled with how to fund CCB programs. These choices include:
- Whether to provide start-up grants.
- Allowing for differential tuition rates.
- Whether state appropriations will differentially fund upper-division classes at community college.
Current policies show variation across all of these financial decision points.
There Is No “Right” Way
CCBs offer an exciting new tool to address education and workforce needs simultaneously. There are many decisions state leaders need to consider in building new CCB initiatives or even revaluating their current ones (e.g., approval processes, funding). But, the beauty of these programs is their ability to meet community needs, workforce demands and student interests. While the lift might seem heavy, policymakers don’t have to start from scratch. Resources like the Community College Baccalaureate Association’s (CCBA) Knowledge Center provide roadmaps, sample proposals and other promising practices that could prove useful to those pursuing CCB adoption or expansion.
There is no “right” way to pursue CCBs. Through the use of extant research, data-informed decision making and identified best practices, state leaders are well-positioned to fashion these impactful tools to suit their communities’ needs in service of affordable postsecondary education and timely workforce development.
