LaGuardia Community College Publishes 2024 Institutional Profile

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY (August 28, 2024) — LaGuardia Community College/CUNY announces the publication of the 2024 Institutional Profile. Highlights of findings include a 70% increase in grant funding over five years, a boost in enrollment for both credit and non-credit programs in the past year, and among the highest pass rates on licensing exams for Nursing and other clinical majors—both statewide and nationally. The report, available online, provides a comprehensive summary of five-year trends in student enrollment, demographics, and graduation and transfer rates over the past decade.

The Institutional Profile is produced annually by the college’s Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (OIRE). It reports student information from the most recently available semester—in this case Fall 2023—against benchmarks from previous years. Providing a comprehensive look at the College, the report includes quantitative information on the college’s faculty and staff, library, finance, grants, and space. It is used for accreditation processes, grant proposals, and as the basis of Fast Facts, a fact sheet providing a snapshot of LaGuardia to external audiences.

“LaGuardia is a data-driven institution. Our leadership uses the Institutional Profile to gauge how the college is serving our community and our students on a large number of indicators, including credit and non-credit enrollment, financial aid, facilities and finances, and to inform our strategic planning processes,” said Nava Lerer, Ph.D., Dean for Institutional Effectiveness at LaGuardia. “By reporting trends in data, the report puts information in context, such as, has enrollment declined or increased? What are students’ outcomes? How are we doing with grants awarded? And more.”

Highlights of findings in the report, summarized in a two-page ‘Five Years At A Glance’ found near the beginning of the Institutional Profile (see pages viii and ix), include:

While the overall number of credit students dropped by 29.5% from Fall 2019 to Fall 2022 as a result of the pandemic, enrollment started recovering in Fall 2023 with a 7% increase compared to Fall 2022 (for more detail, see pg. 8).
The number of graduates declined by 1,632 in the past 5 years (-47%), coinciding with the decrease in enrollment (for more detail, see pg. 27).
Gender and race/ethnicity reported by students have remained about the same. Close to 70% of LaGuardia students reside in Queens.
Students pursuing Health Sciences majors increased 34%.
More than a third (35%) of students are foreign born, a decrease from 39% in Fall 2019. They speak 43 native languages compared to 89 in Fall 2019. The proportion of international students grew from 7% to 10%.
66% of Fall 2023 students received financial aid, a similar proportion as in Fall 2019 (65%).
Grant funding increased more than 70%, from $16,246,596 in FY 2018–19 to $27,765,089 in FY 2022–23 (for more detail, see pgs. 66–67).

Additional notable findings reported in the 2024 Institutional Profile include:

Ecuador is the most common country of origin among students enrolled in Fall 2023, followed closely by Bangladesh (pg. 2).
Elmhurst and Corona is where most students from Queens hail from (pg. 1).
More than 16% of students are age 30 or older, with 3% over age 45 (pg. 3).
Reflecting the college’s designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, 46% of students are Hispanic (pg. 4).
Reflecting the college’s designation as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), 24% of students are Asian (pg. 4).
The major with the biggest increase in majors was Computer Programming and Software Development, with an 86% increase between Fall 2019 to Fall 2023 (pg. 10).
65% of the 2021–22 LaGuardia Associate of Arts and Associate of Science graduates transferred to four-year colleges within two years of graduation (pg. 45).
The 98% pass rate in 2023 for the NCLEX-RN licensing exam for Nursing students is considerably higher compared to both New York State and National Associate programs. It is 5% higher compared to the average for CUNY community colleges, and 23% higher compared to the average for all CUNY institutions that provide Nursing training (pg. 49).
Enrollment in Continuing Education programs, which includes GED prep and other pre-college, English language learning, and workforce training, increased 7% between FY 2021–22 and FY 2022–23 (pg. 52).

Areas for improvement identified through the report include a need to boost the number of first-year full-time freshmen students graduating within three years. Among students who entered between Fall 2017 and Fall 2020, the graduation rate decreased by 6.8% (pg. 34).

“While the Institutional Profile provides a wealth of information on many aspects at the college, it is a summary. It cannot provide all the details that the reader might be interested in,” said Dr. Lerer. “We maintain dashboards on enrollment, graduation rates and student outcomes, which can be used by members of the college community and external members.”

Faculty and staff will receive printed copies of the 2024 Institutional Profile at Opening Sessions on Wednesday, September 4, marking the start of the Fall 2024 semester. Opening Sessions are held at the beginning of each semester at LaGuardia, with keynote speakers and workshops designed by a planning committee around a theme identified to support students’ success. The Fall 2024 theme is “Career Readiness & Pathways: Guiding Students Towards Success in Education and Beyond.” Dr. Niesha Taylor, the first director of career readiness for the National Association of Colleges and Employers, will keynote.

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LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, located in Long Island City, Queens offers more than 50 associate degrees and academic certificates, and more than 65 continuing education programs to prepare New Yorkers for transfer to senior colleges and rewarding jobs and careers. An institution of the City University of New York (CUNY), the College reflects the legacy of our namesake, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the former NYC mayor beloved for his advocacy of the underserved. Since 1971, LaGuardia’s academic programs and support services have advanced the socioeconomic mobility of students from Queens, NYC and beyond.

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