The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) is the

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and

technical college An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

s in the U.S. state of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. It is headquartered in Versailles, Kentucky, and has 16 colleges with over 70 campuses. Programs offered include associate degrees; pre-baccalaureate education to transfer to a public 4-year institution; adult education, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning. KCTCS was founded as part of the Postsecondary Improvement Act of 1997 (House Bill 1), signed by former Kentucky Governor Paul E. Patton, to create a new institution to replace the University of Kentucky's Community College System and the Kentucky Department of Education's network of technical schools. The Kentucky Fire Commission, a separate state entity responsible for training emergency responders, also became part of KCTCS at that time.

History

In 1948, the University of Kentucky Northern Extension Center was founded in Covington. It is the unofficial beginning of the University of Kentucky Community College System—although this campus no longer operates as a community college, as it became a separate four-year institution in 1968 and is now known as Northern Kentucky University. In June 1957, representing the Ashland Independent School District's Board of Education, and with the support of Governor Happy Chandler, Ashland Oil & Refining Company founder and CEO Paul G. Blazer presented a proposal to President Frank G. Dickey and the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for the university to take over the day-to-day operations and curriculum of the nineteen-year-old Ashland unicipalJunior College, creating the Ashland Center of the University of Kentucky as the second university extension center. Details of the planned relationship were contained in the agreement signed by the Ashland Board of Education and the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees. By this agreement the university would provide a course of study and administration which would be comparable to that of the university at Lexington and for which the students would receive the same credit as the students in Lexington. The Ashland Board of Education was to provide the buildings, land, equipment and facilities. All other expenses, including teacher salaries were to be paid by the University of Kentucky. With the continued support of Governor Chandler, President Dickey successfully expanded the program by developing University of Kentucky Extension Centers in Fort Knox (1958), Cumberland (1960), and Henderson (1960). In 1960, newly elected Governor Bert Combs created the Governor's Commission on the Study of Public Higher Education to study the need for such a system. Headed by Otis C. Amis, of Lexington, the commission submitted its recommendations in November 1961, which included creating new community colleges for Prestonsburg, Hopkinsville, Somerset and the Hazard-Blackey area. Authorized by the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in th ...

and signed by Governor Bert Combs on March 6, 1962, a mandate was placed upon the University of Kentucky to form a community college system. President Dickey had concerns of adequate legislative funding. In 1964, the board of trustees and newly elected UK President John W. Oswald implemented the legislation removing the system from the UK Division of Extended Programs and creating a separate UK Division of Community Colleges, changing the extension centers to community colleges in Covington, Ashland,

Fort Knox Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository (also known as Fort Knox), which is used to house a larg ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, and Henderson; and creating Elizabethtown. Veteran educator Ellis F. Hartford was named as Dean with Edsel Godbey named his assistant. Administratively, each college had a director who reported directly to Dean Hartford, who through President Oswald, reported to the UK Board of Trustees. Additionally, each college has a seven-member local advisory committee appointed for four-year terms by the governor. In 1968, the UK Northern (Covington) Community College separated from the system and became an autonomous four-year College under the name Northern Kentucky State College.

Member institutions

KCTCS includes the following community and technical colleges: * Ashland Community and Technical College ( Ashland) * Big Sandy Community and Technical College (

Paintsville Paintsville () is a home rule-class city along Paint Creek in Johnson County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 3,459 during the 2010 U.S. Census. History A Paint Lick Station was referred to in ...

, Prestonsburg, Pikeville, Hager Hill) * Bluegrass Community and Technical College ( Lexington, Danville, Lawrenceburg,

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, Georgetown) * Elizabethtown Community and Technical College ( Elizabethtown) * Gateway Community and Technical College ( Covington,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Edgewood and Highland Heights) * Hazard Community and Technical College (

Hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would potentially allow them to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probability of that ...

, Jackson, Hyden, Hindman) * Henderson Community College ( Henderson) * Hopkinsville Community College ( Hopkinsville) * Jefferson Community and Technical College (

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

, Carrollton, Shelbyville) * Madisonville Community College ( Madisonville, Central City) * Maysville Community and Technical College ( Maysville, Cynthiana, Morehead) * Owensboro Community and Technical College ( Owensboro) * Somerset Community College (

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

) * Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College (

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

) * Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (

) * West Kentucky Community and Technical College ( Paducah)

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Universities and colleges established in 1997 Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools 1997 establishments in Kentucky