PTCC REACHES ALL-TIME HIGH IN ENROLLMENT
Pine City, MN – April 2, 2024 Pine Technical and Community College (PTCC) is excited to announce that they have reached their all-time historic high in enrollment.
In March, PTCC documented a historical high in the number of students served! With approximately 900 on-campus (undergraduate) students and 1300 college-in-the-schools students (Post-Secondary Enrollment Option and Concurrent Enrollment), PTCC has surpassed its previous Fiscal Year Equivalent (*FYE) record of 819 in 2019, achieving 832 FYE in 2024.
With year over year enrollment growth in eight out of the last ten years, PTCC is one of few colleges in the state of Minnesota that has seen consistent growth. Slowed only by a slight dip in enrollment through the pandemic, PTCC continues to surpass goals due to the many positive initiatives happening around campus, including scholarships from state and private donors, new program and course offerings, and significant investments in facilities and state-of-the-industry training equipment. PTCC’s statewide recognition for high-quality programs, such as nursing, are drawing students from a wider geographical area. PTCC’s Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program recently ranked number one and their Registered Nursing (RN) programs ranked number two in the state amongst two-year colleges for highest pass rate on the MN Board of Nursing licensure exam. Their RN program would remain in the top four when including four-year university graduates. Additionally, the PTCC Cyber Security Defense Team finished 5th in the Midwest at a regional competition for all two- and four-year colleges and universities.
President Joe Mulford attributes the growth to not only the above-mentioned investments and high-quality programming but also to a shifting interest in technical degrees and occupations. President Mulford stated that, “Technical careers are now the in-demand choice amongst young people as they realize that industry is scooping them up as fast as they graduate.” He also feels that these decision-makers have fully realized their spending power improves not only from the high wages they will earn but also the low amount of student debt.
PTCC projects that the number of students enrolled will continue to trend upward as they break ground on their historic Technical and Trades Lab Expansion and Renovation project which will add and renovate nearly 25,000 square feet of technical learning labs. When completed in the spring of 2026, PTCC students will have all new technical learning labs and almost all new equipment in those labs. In addition, there is a new student housing facility opening two blocks from the campus on Cross Lake: Lakeside Student Living (the old Lakeside Medical Center nursing home), which can house up to 150 students. This new housing opportunity coupled with new and larger lab spaces will provide even more capacity to increase the educational attainment rate in our region. President Mulford shared his excitement that in a few months, “PTCC students will have the opportunity to live on a lake next to campus while learning in the newest technical labs in the state!”
While these are only numbers, what matters is that there is a student and a story behind these amounts – each with unique experiences and reasons they have chosen to come to PTCC whether they are starting out or starting over.
* One FYE is equivalent to 30 college credits