Financial impact of part-time enrollments on two-year colleges: a marginal cost perspective

The number of part-time students attending public two-year colleges increased rapidly during the 1970s. By the end of the decade, aggregate part-time enrollment constituted about 63 percent of total headcount enrollment at those institutions. Concern has been expressed about the financial implicatopms pf this trend from an institutional perspective. The question is whether the conventional ratio (three-to-one or so) for converting part-time to full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment accurately represents the actual costs of providing services to part-time versus full-time students.