The number of people in the United States who have some college but no credential (SCNC) had reached 39 million as of July 2020, up 8.6 percent from 36 million in December 2018, a report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center finds. 

The third in a Lumina Foundation-funded series of studies, the report, Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes Annual Progress Report – Academic Year 2020/21 (16 pages, PDF), found that more than 944,000 SCNC Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 re-enrolled in higher education during the 2020-21 academic year. And 60,400 earned their first-ever postsecondary credential, including more than 18,000 bachelor’s degrees. Of those who re-enrolled in 2019-20, 61.1 percent (531,700 students) had either continued into a second year of enrollment or earned a credential within a year of re-enrolling.

The report also found that California, Texas, New York, and Illinois accounted for more than a third of the nation’s SCNC students. However, Alaska shows the largest number of SCNC students per 1,000 among currently enrolled undergraduates. In addition, the study found that women outnumbered men in re-enrollment, credential earning, and perseverance, with 3.1 percent of SCNC women re-enrolling, compared with 2 percent of SCNC men. Women made up a larger share of re-enrolled students than men (59 percent vs. 38.3 percent), especially among Black, Latinx, and Native American re-enrollees (66.4 percent, 60.6 percent, and 64.8 percent, respectively).

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/smolaw11)