Subscribe to the NetworkStats That Might Shock You (and possibly change the way you do ministry)
USA Today put out an article called, “Degrees of Difficulty.” The article highlighted 5 different “non-traditional” students. There is a video series coming out that you might be interested in watching as well (click here if so). Now, these are clearly part of the campus sub-culture referred to as the “vocational” students. I wrote an article about them here as part of a series of articles on the major campus sub-cultures.
Anyway, the article begins with this statement, “What comes to mind when you hear “college student”? To many Americans, it’s someone who goes to college straight from high school, lives in a dorm, and gets a degree four years later. But things have changed.”
What might be the most surprising to some are the stats the National Center for Education is putting out now. Check these out:
- Three-fourths of today’s students no longer fit that traditional model. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, about half of today’s students are financially independent; 49% are enrolled part-time; 38% work full time; 27% have dependents of their own. Almost half — 12 million — attend two-year community colleges rather than four-year schools.
- And most students who start college don’t finish. Only 56% of students at four-year colleges complete a degree within six years, and just 20% of first-time students at public community colleges get a degree or certificate within three years.
Moving forward it seems that this is going to force a few issues for us in college ministry.
- Age-range of people we focus on is going to be rethought. Many are wondering if their ministry should be specific to 18-22, 18-25, 18-28, etc. Conclusions on this issue ought to be drawn depending on the context of your ministry, but with ministries designed to reach a broad demographic that’s worded something like “students on a campus” will have to rethink their current approach.
- How we reference our ministries will need to become even more precise. I prefer the term “college-age people.” And by that I mean people between 18-25. I choose that wording because of my time with people in this age group. My terminology is driven by the people themselves, not a sociological theory. Having said that the national average to complete a 4 year degree is 5-7 years, which does affect my range. I have 4-5 other reasons, but for this post I’ll simply say that the ever-changing scope of people attending degree granting institutions will force us to continue thinking about how we reference our ministries.
- Churches that are not located next to a major University no longer have an excuse to not engage in ministry to college-age people. Over the years I’ve literally heard hundreds of people talk about how there’s just a “community college” nearby. They speak of it as if it’s a lesser ministry or campus. But the truth is these campuses are exploding! More freshman students start here than every before. And if we have a heart for this age of people community colleges must be focused on. I have 4 community colleges, totaling over 75k students, within a 20 mile radius of my house. That is fun.
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