Despite the many differences between community colleges in the United States and British further education colleges, there are substantial similarities in their social role and educational mission. The U.S. community college could thus provide an illuminating comparison for the British further education college, as consideration is given to ways of fully harnessing the further education college’s potential role in higher education and navigating the contradictions of providing comprehensive access to higher education within a socially stratified society.
This chapter examines the governance and finance of U.S. community colleges and the strengths and weaknesses of the main features of their mission and curriculum (higher education access; baccalaureate preparation; vocational education; remedial and developmental education; and adult, continuing, and community education).
This chapter was published in Colleges 2020, edited by T. Dolphin and J. Clifton.
