Mission and Intended Outcomes

Mission

The Austin Community College District promotes student success and community development by providing affordable access, through traditional and distance learning modes, to higher education and workforce training, including appropriate applied baccalaureate degrees, in its service area.

To fulfill its mission, the College will provide, within its available resources, the mission elements prescribed by the State of Texas:

1. Vocational and technical programs of varying lengths leading to certificates or degrees.
2. Freshman- and sophomore-level academic courses leading to an associate degree or serving as the base of a baccalaureate degree program at a four-year institution.
3. Continuing adult education for academic, occupational, professional, and cultural enhancement.
4. Special instructional programs and tutorial services to assist underprepared students and others who need special assistance to achieve their educational goals.
5. A continuing program of counseling and advising designed to assist students in achieving their individual educational and occupational goals.
6. A program of technology, library, media, and testing services to support instruction.
7. Contracted instruction programs and services for area employers that promote economic development.

Intended Outcomes

The Austin Community College District is committed to enhanced learning success for all students. The primary goals of the College’s efforts to promote student success shall be to:

1. Increase persistence (term-to-term & fall to fall).
2. Complete developmental and adult education course progression to credit courses.
3. Increase completion of all attempted courses with a “C” or better.
4. Increase degree/certificate graduates and transfer rates.
5. Increase success equity across all racial/ethnic/gender/ income groups.

The Austin Community College District will establish institutional effectiveness measures designed to assess the College’s success in providing:

1. Balanced instructional offerings among the College’s mission elements.
2. A teaching and learning environment that encourages students to be active, life-long learners.
3. Accessible and affordable post-secondary and higher education programs and services for all who qualify and have the ability to benefit.
4. Enrollments reflecting diverse and traditionally underserved populations in numbers that represent the local populations of our Service Area.
5. Job placement from career workforce programs into family- wage careers.
6. Efficiently administered programs and services that create an institution that is a good place to work, learn, and otherwise experience the higher-education process.

Student success and institutional effectiveness measures and assessment results will be reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees as an indication of the College’s progress in achievement of its Strategic Plan.