DeKALB – The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center announced Tuesday that the population of former university students with some credits but no degree is up by 3.6% since 2022.

The report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found the U.S. added 1.4 million more SCNC (some college, no credential) students to the now 40.4 million. The reason for this increase is due to the lack of enrollment of the previous 39 million SCNC’s who did not re-enroll.

Within the SCNC population there are two subgroups of students that demonstrate promising re-enrollment and completion outcomes, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. These two groups include “potential completers,” who have completed at least two years worth of progress in their academics and “recent stop-outs,” who are recent student who dropped out as of May of 2022.

It is noted that of the SCNC population, approximately 2.9 million or 7.3% are “potential completers.”

Of the total SCNC population, most students were younger than 35 at their last enrollment. A quarter of “recent stop-outs” were under 20 and “potential completers” were mainly in their 20s at 55.6% according to the research.

Community colleges were the most common type of institution for last enrollment, re-enrollment and first credential attainment for SCNC students.

The research also showed that the Black SCNC population was less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree within a year of re-enrolling, which was 22.8%of Black completers vs. the national average of 25.7%.