By the Numbers
110 out of 115 California Community Colleges offer an AA-T in Political Science.
Political Science All Awards from Academic Year 2017-18 to 2021-22
Award Type | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Associate in Arts for Transfer (A.A.-T) Degree | 1,457 | 1,624 | 1,865 | 2,043 | 1,805 |
Associate of Science (A.S.) degree | 1 | ||||
Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree | 163 | 173 | 159 | 162 | 151 |
Certificate requiring 18 to < 30 semester units | 37 | ||||
Certificate requiring 16 to fewer than 30 semester units | 25 | 29 | 37 | 41 | |
Certificate requiring 6 to < 18 semester units | 13 | 27 | 2 |
Current POLS Course Descriptors
A Course Descriptor is a document that lists the status, discipline, descriptor title, units, general description, C-ID number, prerequisites, corequisites, advisories, content, lab activities, objectives, evaluation methods, textbooks, approval date, and revised date. A Course Descriptor is the document used by faculty at CCC campuses to develop a Course Outline of Record.
Visit C-ID – Descriptors Final for more information.
POLS Courses at CCCs and CSUs from 2017 to 2022
- Overall Growth in # courses: 434 in 2017, 508 in 2020, 520 in 2022
- Most CCCs and CSUs have American Government (AG), International Relations (IR), Comparative Politics (CP), and Political Theory (PT).
- Less than half of CCCs and CSUs have Political Science (PS) and Research Methods (RM)
Degrees (AA-T, AA, AS) Awarded by Discipline over 10 years
The six disciplines included in this analysis are Anthropology, Economics, Ethnic Studies, History, Political Science, and Sociology.
- Sociology has seen extraordinary growth since 2011-2012.
- Economics surpassed Political Science and History in 2018-2019.
- Political science has been 3rd behind Sociology and History (now Economics).
Total Enrollment by Discipline from Spring 2019 to Fall 2022
The six disciplines included in this analysis are Anthropology, Economics, Ethnic Studies, History, Political Science, and Sociology.
POLS Courses Offered in California
There were 1,117 POLS courses offered at CCCs in Fall 2022. Below is table showing counts of key term in course title. Some courses are counted twice in the table below, while others are not counted at all. The table demonstrates the wide range of courses that are offered at CCCs.
Term in Title | Count |
American | 161 |
Political Science | 131 |
International | 113 |
Comparative | 108 |
Theory | 77 |
California | 42 |
World | 38 |
Global | 32 |
Ethnic | 27 |
Independent | 26 |
Race | 23 |
Middle East | 23 |
Latin/Latinx/Latino/Chicano | 20 |
Research | 17 |
Directed | 17 |
Gender | 15 |
Model United Nations | 14 |
Philosophy | 12 |
Constitution | 11 |
Women | 10 |
Community | 9 |
Black/African American | 7 |
Public Policy | 7 |
Leadership | 7 |
Public Administration | 7 |
Asia | 5 |
Urban | 3 |
Native American | 2 |
Total | 964 |