Illinois Community College Spring Enrollment Grows for Third Straight Year
Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images News- Illinois community colleges have posted impressive growth since 2022.
- The number of students enrolled in the 2025 spring semester grew 8.9% compared to last year.
- Online enrollment at two-year colleges, meanwhile, has declined in recent years.
- Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill to allow community colleges in the state to offer bachelor’s degrees.
Enrollment grew across Illinois public community colleges for the third consecutive spring semester.
The total headcount across the system grew 8.9% compared to the previous spring semester. Since spring 2022, enrollment across two-year colleges in the state has grown 22.7%, according to the 2025 Spring Enrollment Report.
Gov. JB Pritzker praised the enrollment surge across the Illinois Community College System on March 18.
“With the largest spring-to-spring enrollment increase and the third straight year of growth, our community colleges have not only bounced back from the pandemic — they are now stronger than ever thanks to our historic investments in education,” Pritzker said in a statement.
He recently advocated for a bill that would allow Illinois community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees.
Of the 45 colleges with enrollment data, just five reported a spring-to-spring enrollment decrease from spring 2024 to 2025. Joliet Junior College reported the steepest increase, growing its headcount by 28.5% in just one year.
Kennedy-King College in Chicago has seen the largest enrollment growth since spring 2021 with an 88.4% increase.
Much of Illinois’ enrollment success can be attributed to its transfer programs and career and technical education (CTE) programs. Enrollment has consistently grown in both those categories since 2022, and they make up the two largest student groups.
Online enrollment at the state’s public community colleges, meanwhile, has decreased each spring semester since 2021.
Just 26.4% of Illinois community college students are enrolled full time, according to the 2025 Spring Enrollment Report.
Illinois has invested heavily in growing enrollment at its community colleges in recent years.
For the 2024-25 college application season, four Illinois community colleges became the first two-year institutions students could apply to through the Common App college application platform. The state added another three colleges to the Common App with the 2025-26 application season.
Beginning with the 2024-25 academic year, all Illinois community college students had guaranteed admission to four-year public universities if they met the following requirements:
- Graduated from an Illinois high school
- Earned a minimum of 36 graded, transferable credit hours
- Have at least a 3.0 GPA in their transferable coursework
- Satisfy the university’s English language proficiency requirement
“We know higher education is key to our future, which is why we’ve made historic investments to make education more accessible,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a statement. “When education is more accessible and affordable, our entire state is stronger.”