DURHAM — It may be a nationwide trend, but Durham Tech's not part of it.

While the percentage of full-time students enrolled in college — particularly at two-year institutions — has grown significantly in recent years, part-timers still account for around three-quarters of Durham Tech's enrollment.

"We do not know at this time why full-time enrollment has not increased as in some areas of the country," said LaSylvia Pugh, coordinator of Institutional Research and Planning at Durham Tech. "But we do know that many of our students have jobs as well as attend college."

At the school, the ratio of full-time to part-time students has remained fairly consistent — around 28 percent for full time and 72 percent for part-time — over the past several years. In fall 2007, the ratio was 26 percent to 74 percent, and last fall, it was 21 percent to 79 percent.

That runs counter to findings in a report just issued by the U.S. Department of Education.

"The Condition of Education 2009" says that from 2000 to 2007, enrollment of full-time students at two-year colleges nationwide increased by about 21 percent. That's compared to a 5 percent rise in the enrollment of part-time students at the same institutions.

That's a big change from the 1980s and 1990s, which saw community colleges welcoming increasing numbers of part-time and non-traditional students.

Kent Phillipe, at the Washington-based American Association of Community Colleges, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the national increase of full-time students was probably attributable to the growth in the number of young people graduating from high school. Those students, he said, are more likely to attend full time than non-traditional students.

And, according to the report, projections indicate that this pattern will continue, with full-time enrollment reaching 3.1 million in community colleges in 2018 and part-time enrollment reaching 4.3 million in 2018.

Pugh of Durham Tech noted that the school does not know yet if the percentage of full-time students for certain age groups has increased, but did know that "this is not true for the general population of Durham Tech students."