The study examined students’ needs and satisfaction at the Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY. Purposive sampling method was used to examine the needs and satisfaction of the allied healthcare programme and the English as a Second Language programme students. Results of the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with students and faculty members demonstrate that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to assist non-credit students to complete their programmes. By learning the perceptions of the non-credit students, the college can make necessary changes for improvements, which ultimately will bring a higher return on investments and engagement of the non-credit student population. The needs and satisfactions of this population have to be taken seriously; whereby providing students by access to credit programmes, generating meaningful outcomes for a range of their needs, and facilitating the long-term pursuit of degree in connection to the academic departments.

Background. Adult Student Priorities Survey (ASPS) from Ruffalo Noel Levitz was utilized to examine the level of importance and the level of satisfaction of continuing education students in allied health care and English as a second language (ESL) programs at Kingborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY. Method. Mean scores for both “importance” and “satisfaction” items were calculated by summing participants’ ratings (1-7 Likert-type scale) and dividing them by the number respondents. Mean scores for each scale were also calculated by summing all respondents’ scale scores and dividing them by the number of respondents. Gaps between importance and satisfaction were calculated by subtracting the score for satisfaction from the score for importance. The mean scores of allied health care students were compared with mean scores of ESL students. Results. The highest gap score was observed for academic services (0.91) followed by service excellence (0.85) as reported by the allied health care group, showing that students reported high importance but low satisfaction. There were no statistically significant differences between the average score of the two groups, indicating that the ratings were similar for the groups. Conclusion. Based on our findings, simple fixes such as extending registration times, having additional college and career advisors on staff, and training existing staff on customer service skills have the potential to increase enrollment and revenue, thereby giving us the resources to offer additional classes and programs in response to student needs.