North Carolina is home to more than 100 higher education institutions. They include large research universities, small private liberal arts colleges, HBCUs, single-gender colleges, community colleges, and others.
Some focus on workforce pipeline training, others are attached to enormous healthcare systems, and several promote being a place where students can discover themselves alongside a close-knit academic community.
All the schools face an unprecedented higher education landscape: declines in the number of available traditional college students; shifts in federal support; and rapidly changing advances in technology.
WUNC higher education reporter Brianna Atkinson asked a sampling of chancellors and presidents across the state five big questions about how they are navigating this environment.
This is part of a series on the state and future of higher education. All of the stories can be accessed here.
Wake Tech is the largest of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges. More than 76,000 students take some form of coursework at Wake Tech each year, with a record 30,750 seeking a degree this fall. The two-year institution includes traditional-aged college students, but also a large number of working adults, dual-enrollment high schoolers, and veterans. Popular programs include information and digital technology, healthcare and wellness, and public safety.
Wake Tech has lately been investing in more apprenticeship programs, which covers students’ tuition and pays for their job training. The community college has also been trying to align itself with new federal programs like Workforce Pell, which extends federal scholarship funds to short-term workforce training programs. So far, the uptake has been difficult as only a handful of Wake Tech’s programs qualify for the initiative’s strict requirements.
Scott Ralls has been president of Wake Tech for more than seven years. He previously served as president of the NC Community College System.
What is one important thing happening in higher education and affecting your institution that no one is talking about?
Apprenticeship is quietly reshaping the future of higher education. Wake Tech has become one of the nation’s leading apprenticeship colleges, partnering with more than 170 employers over the past five years to create registered apprenticeship programs across a wide range of industries. Last year, more than 600 students attended Wake Tech as apprentices, and we launched the nation’s first BioMechatronics and Dental Assisting apprenticeships. Next year, we’re expanding youth apprenticeships in partnership with Wake County Public Schools through a significant investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Apprenticeship turns the traditional conversation about college value on its head. Our apprentices attend college tuition-free while earning a paycheck, gaining real-world experience and graduating with little or no debt and a career already underway.
If you could make one change to how higher education is viewed in this country what would it be?
I would change the outdated assumption that college is a one-time experience for recent high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 22. That has never reflected the reality for community colleges, and increasingly it doesn’t reflect higher education as a whole.
Today’s students are working adults, parents, military veterans, career changers and lifelong learners who enter and re-enter college at different stages of life. Our policies, our public conversations and even the way we tell the story of higher education should better reflect who today’s students really are.
Community colleges are no longer viewed as the alternative in higher education. Increasingly, they are becoming the center of the conversation because they are where education, workforce development and economic opportunity come together.
What is college for?
College is about opportunity. Speaking for Wake Tech, we see ourselves as our region’s “ladder college.” Wake Tech serves a different purpose than colleges that draw students from across the country. We create opportunity close to home, helping more people climb into new opportunities than any other college in North Carolina. Our mission is to provide education that transforms lives through economic mobility and personal fulfillment. Our vision is to reach students across every part of Wake County and rally around them so they can go as far as their talents, determination and dreams will take them.
For us, college is about opening doors. It is about helping people move from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. That is why community colleges are increasingly at the center of higher education’s future.
What’s something on your campus that’s giving you hope and how do you envision your institution will look in the next 5-10 years?
One of the things giving me the most hope is that Wake Tech has achieved the highest student retention rates in our history. Community college students have always inspired me with their resilience, but many are balancing work, family responsibilities and financial challenges while pursuing an education. Our responsibility is to rally around them, so those challenges don’t become barriers to success.
Through our CARE Teams, CARE Centers and Tutoring and Learning Centers, we provide coordinated academic, career and personal support that helps students stay on track. We’re also using artificial intelligence to make those services more responsive and personalized, helping us identify students who may need support sooner and connect them with the right resources.
Over the next five to ten years, I believe colleges like Wake Tech will become even more student-centered. Artificial intelligence won’t replace human relationships; it will strengthen them. By helping us anticipate student needs and personalize support, AI will give our faculty and staff more time to do what matters most: building relationships, mentoring students and helping them succeed.
You’ve been president of several community colleges, with your longest-serving roles being now and previously as the head of the state’s entire Community College System back in 2008. What made you want to step down from that role to becoming a community college president again?
I have always enjoyed being on the front lines, where I can work more closely with students and employers and have a direct hand in shaping student success and workforce development. I was honored to serve seven years as president of the North Carolina Community College System, but there are some experiences you simply can’t have from headquarters.
I’ve never viewed returning to a college as a step down. In fact, I always planned to return once what I jokingly call my “Pentagon tour” was complete.
There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing students transform their lives, helping employers build the workforce they need and watching a community college shape the future of an entire region. That’s where I wanted to be.