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Evidence suggests that community colleges worldwide adhere to a culturally-embedded institutional charter that celebrates and accommodates local cultural norms and social, political and economic needs in communities around the world. Using this as a foundation, the authors present a dilemma to readers because there are both many communities and nations where the community college model has expanded and established itself while simultaneously many communities and nations around the world where community colleges do not exist or have been resisted. This unique phenomenon of both global expansion and targeted indifference becomes the focus of this chapter and an introduction to the chapters to follow.

This volume of the International Perspectives on Education and Society series investigates the spread and development of two-year and community college institutions worldwide. While these institutions may be called by different names and may not all be structured the same in all international contexts, their core mission remains surprisingly consistent: to respond to the needs of their local community. Following the example of the German Volkshochschule, this model has spread to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Thailand, and other nations worldwide. While the community college “label” is debatable and possibly controversial in and of itself, what these institutions all have in common is that they seek to serve the needs of their local communities by bridging the gap between academia and technical training with learning that is open and accessible. The students that these institutions serve come from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, races, cultures, and genders. Whether they provide these students with technical training, the ability to transfer to four-year higher education institutions, remedial education, or lifelong learning opportunities, these models adapt and institutionalize themselves differently around the world to meet these various community needs. This volume seeks to analyze the different ways this model has served communities in different international contexts, but for similar purposes.

S. Xavier Alphonse is a PhD in English literature. He is the Founder Director of the Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE), Chennai, India and former Principal of Loyola College, Chennai and former Vice Principal of St. Joseph's College, Trichy. He was a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi for two terms (2006-2012). Dr. Alphonse was also a member of the Distance Education Council (DEC), New Delhi. He is the chairman of National committee on Community Colleges appointed by the UGC to discuss the concept and methodology for establishment and functioning of the Community Colleges. Dr. Alphonse is a consultant to the state government of Tamilnadu for the Community College Project. He was also the consultant to the Honourable Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea for the creation of 13 community colleges in 2008. He is an authority on college autonomy in India, and pioneered the formation of community colleges as an alternative system of education for the poor and the downtrodden. He has written 73 articles and authored and edited 37 books on the Community College system and its implementation.

This practitioner's chapter suggests that the establishment of the Community College system in India was organic in its formation. The author of this chapter, Father Alphonse, a Jesuit priest, visited the United States in the mid-1990s and toured many Community Colleges, where he learned about their unique role in America's higher education system. He returned to India and the church funded the establishment of local colleges, responding to needs of the local populations. These colleges have missions as varied as the students they serve, and yet they share a common goal of addressing educational, economic, and social exclusion. Indian Community College institutions exist to educate the disadvantaged and to build specific skills training to combat widespread unemployment and poverty.