UNITED STATES

US: High enrolment strains two-year colleges
Community colleges, long regarded as the most accessible realm of higher education, are becoming more difficult to access thanks to record enrolments combined with belt-tightening by state legislatures, writes Kevin Helliker for The Wall Street Journal.In a survey to be released by the Pearson Foundation, a non-profit educational think tank in Mill Valley, California, about 20% of 1,434 community college students interviewed in November reported difficulty enrolling in required courses for the fall semester. About one in three had trouble winning a spot in desired classes.
Those problems are mild next to enrolment caps that could be imposed in California and possibly other states. Budget cuts in California could force its community-college system, the biggest collegiate system in the US serving about 2.76 million students, to turn away about 350,000 applicants next year.
Full report on the Wall Street Journal site