The Alabama Community College System announced Wednesday (Oct. 14) that the latest enrollment figures show 100,262 students are attending a community college this fall — the highest unduplicated student headcount since 2010.
The news came during the system’s board of trustees meeting in Montgomery. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place at Coastal Alabama Community College in Bay Minette but was moved to Montgomery following Hurricane Isaias, which struck the Gulf Coast last week.
ACCS Vice Chancellor of Student Success Neil Scott, who presented the figures to trustees, said enrollment continues to grow across the system’s 24 community and technical colleges.
Number of students
The combined headcount across all 24 colleges reached 100,718 students, an increase of 3.5%, or 3,421 students, over fall 2025. Sixteen colleges reported increases in enrollment.
The combined figure is slightly higher than the unduplicated headcount because some students take classes at more than one community college and are counted at each institution. The unduplicated figure counts each student only once across the system.
Students are also taking more classes. They are enrolled in more than 836,000 credit hours this fall, an increase of 3%, or more than 24,000 credit hours over last year. Scott said that is the highest fall credit hour total since 2013.
Sixteen colleges reported increases in credit hour production.
Enrollment figures from ACCS show 33,576 students, or 33.5% of the unduplicated headcount, are dual-enrolled, meaning they are attending high school and taking community college courses during the fall semester.
Dual enrollment has become an increasingly significant part of enrollment at Alabama’s public two-year colleges. Historical data from the Alabama Statewide Student Database show dual-enrolled students accounted for about 22% of enrollment in fall 2021, compared with 33.4% in fall 2024 and 35.5% in fall 2025.
“We are really excited to be over the 100,000 mark for the first time in quite some time,” Scott told trustees.
The figures are preliminary. Scott said the system typically finalizes fall enrollment numbers in November.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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