In 2023, the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) offered bachelor’s degree programs for the first time after a change in state law.
The district started with seven of those programs, but hopes to more than triple that number by 2031.
Beginning in 2027, the district will launch multiple new bachelor’s degrees every year for five consecutive years, with the goal of reaching about 25 programs total.
Interim Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Meredith Warner said they’ll duplicate some of their popular existing degrees at multiple campuses, as well as offer new subjects to fill workforce gaps.
“One of the things that we have routinely heard from industry is they have high school graduates who put on rabbit suits and they can go in and do the small pieces of work in a manufacturing space or a semiconductor space, but they really need somebody who can lead teams and who has an understanding for project management," Warner said.
About 1,800 students signed up for the initial bachelor’s degree programs. The number of students enrolled has since grown to nearly 8,000. Warner said the district recently surveyed those students, asking whether they intended to get a bachelor's degree when they first started at MCCCD.
Warner said: "55% of them said they were not sure or not planning on getting a bachelor's degree. So we've opened an opportunity for a population of people who didn't even think the bachelor's degree was within scope for them."
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