PHOENIX

Officials at Maricopa Community Colleges are searching for ways to keep their students in class.

Three-quarters of the college’s first-time, full-time students do not earn two-year degrees or certificates or transfer to universities within three years, according to The Arizona Republic.

Maricopa students also leave community college early without a degree at higher rates than the nation, with less than one in four returning the following school year.

“It’s a big problem,” Arizona State University President Michael Crow said of the Maricopa transfer rate.

College and university officials have launched several programs aimed at encouraging more students to stay and strive to earn four-year degrees. The latest, beginning this month, allows students to earn a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Indiana University while in Arizona.

Across the nation, community colleges are under pressure to keep more students in school and move them into four-year programs. If they don’t move on, they’ll clog a system that researchers predict will be flush with new students as young Americans enter college in record numbers.

“If all you are going to do is take them in, and you haven’t transferred them, then it’s like a closed door,” says Amaury Nora, a professor at the University of Houston’s College of Education, who studies community colleges.

In the past year, some lawmakers have accused Maricopa Community Colleges of diluting its mission by expanding its international programs, which included overseas travel by administrators and faculty.

Maricopa has agreed to help train thousands of medical professionals in China online and has a partnership with a college in the Netherlands. It also participates in study-abroad programs.

State Sen. Linda Gray, R-Phoenix, who serves on the Senate Higher Education Committee, says MCC should educate more medical professionals here, rather than training ones overseas.