The options for four-year degrees at Columbia Basin College are growing once again.

The college is awaiting final accreditation for a new Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy, which will be offered at its Richland campus as early as this fall. And according to documents from the State Board of Community & Technical Colleges, CBC is also pursuing offering a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

If both those degree programs are established, CBC will have 11 different four-year programs.

Once the domain of four-year colleges and universities, undergraduate degree programs have helped CBC buck the national trend of community colleges struggling to attract students looking to advance their careers and increase their earnings.

Offering four-year degrees is a deliberate response to industry seeking highly trained professionals which set up graduates for successful futures, CBC officials say, though serving students who pursue a two-year associate degree continues to be the main path of most CBC graduates.

“We aren’t going to be a university, but we are going to be a 21st century comprehensive community college,” said Mike Lee, CBC’s vice president for instruction.

Value of a degree

According to a recent report from the Community College Research Center of Teachers College at Columbia University, nearly 75% of the community colleges in the U.S. have yet to return to pre-pandemic student enrollment numbers. Even pre-pandemic, many community colleges nationwide saw enrollment drops after the Great Recession.

Looking at report data from 2019, less than half of the degrees awarded were found to lead to salaries well above living wage, and nearly a quarter, many of them workforce associate degrees in fields such as business, communications, early childhood education and health administration services, often lead to earnings far below a living wage, defined as $35,000 annually.

“If community colleges are to build back enrollments and address concerns about the value of a college education, they must ensure that their workforce and transfer programs prepare students to secure good jobs or transfer successfully,” the report said.

Washington state’s community colleges performed better than the national average, recording median two-year annual earnings of just over $39,000 for its graduates, compared to $34,960 nationally.

CBC graduates fare even better, with its graduates reporting median two-year earnings of $45,783 annually. While salary data was not available for all degree programs, of the seven with data, all but two reported graduate earnings above those of state averages, in one case more than $20,000 of the state median. And only one of those programs conferred a four-year degree at the time that data was collected.

More recent data from November 2024 provided by the Education Research & Data Center highlights the value of CBC’s bachelor’s degrees, with most of those graduates earning between $47,000 and $88,000 annually within a year of graduation, climbing to $58,000 and $101,000 annually within three years of graduation.

Partnership leads to value

Unlike most community colleges, CBC’s enrollment has climbed steadily since hitting a low of just over 9,600 students during the 2020-21 academic year. It’s currently on pace to meet or exceed its pre-pandemic enrollment record of 11,446 set in the 2018-19 academic year.

It helps that the college is able to respond quickly when there’s a need for specifically trained workers. Lee said CBC can have a bachelor’s program ready for students within a year of starting to develop it. The turnaround time is even faster for certificate-level programs.

“Very often it starts with industry coming to us and saying they have a need and then we look at whether the job market has enough openings,” Lee said.

He stressed that the expansion of the college’s four-year programs is not an effort to draw students away from universities. Part of CBC’s process for determining whether to establish a new bachelor’s degree is talking to neighboring universities and colleges to ensure that they aren’t duplicating programs.

“We’re offering an additional pathway to a bachelor’s but we still need people to go into chemistry, biology, teaching, English and art,” Lee said.

Supporting multiple pathways

Even as CBC continues to graduate hundreds of students from its four-year programs each year, the bulk of its enrollment includes students earning a two-year associate degree to transfer to a four-year university.

That’s where many community colleges are failing their graduates, according to the CCRC. Nearly 60% of transfer associate degrees are in liberal or general studies, but only 24% show graduates earning a living wage two years after finishing school.

“Students who enroll in these programs should expect them to lead efficiently to a living-wage job and career advancement or to a bachelor’s degree program in their field of interest,” the report said. “Yet many community college workforce and transfer programs do not enable students to secure a good job or transfer in a major without excess credits.”

CBC students with transfer associate degrees, most of which are in liberal or general studies, fall into the group with low pay after leaving the college, with median two-year earnings of just $21,660, according to the report. That’s lower than the state average of $25,234 for students who graduated from a similar program.

Lee said the lower earnings likely result from the fact that many transfer students are still pursuing their education two years after leaving CBC. And the college’s data shows that many of its graduates don’t transfer to a university until even later due to the obligations of raising a family and other challenges.

But that’s also why CBC has worked to make it easier for students to transfer upon graduation and achieve their planned goal. The college partners with the Washington State University system, Western Governors University and Eastern Washington University to make sure students are picking a path and getting the credits they need.

It’s also crucial students identify their goals early to ensure they don’t just have the credits but also are prepared for the rigors of university learning.

“They’re not just getting an associate degree. They really need to think about their time at CBC,” Lee said.