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• Approximately 2.8 million students took a humanities course at a community college in the fall of 2015 (Figure 1).
• Over 1.7 million students took at least one course in English, and approximately 700,000 students took a history course in fall 2015. Courses in languages other than English (LOTE) drew approximately 300,000 students, while somewhere between 255,000 and 275,000 community college students took a philosophy course. Additionally, between 400,000 and 450,000 students took a course in another humanities discipline or a survey course in the humanities.
• Approximately 95% of community colleges offered a course or courses in English in fall 2015, and approximately 90% of community colleges offered a course in philosophy (Figure 2). History courses were offered at approximately 75% of community colleges, while almost two-thirds of community colleges offered a LOTE course.1 Slightly more than two-thirds of institutions offered either a general course in the humanities or a course in a humanities discipline not discussed above.
• In fall 2015, approximately 40% of all community college students took at least one humanities course (Figure 3). A quarter of students enrolled at community colleges were taking an English course, while students enrolled in history courses accounted for slightly more than 10% of all students. Students taking LOTE courses constituted about 4% of enrollments at two-year colleges, as was true for students taking philosophy courses. Students enrolled in other humanities courses represented approximately 6% of community college students.
• High school students accounted for approximately 10% of humanities coursetakers at community colleges, but the share varied widely by discipline (Figure 4). High school students constituted more than 14% of the students enrolled in English, history, and LOTE courses. Among students enrolled in philosophy and other humanities courses, however, less than 8% were high school students.

Endnotes

• 1The estimates for history and LOTE suggest a decline in the shares of institutions offering courses in history and LOTE since the 1990s, as a 1998 survey estimated that each subject was taught at 96% of the nation’s community colleges. Florence B. Brawer, “Liberal Arts,” New Directions for Community Colleges: Trends in Community College Curriculum, no. 108 (Winter 1999): 20, Table 2.2.