More than a third of community college students have vanished in the United States

[dfrecore]

Part of it is that many students aren't there to get any sort of degree or certificate anyway - they may need to get some skills in something and just need a couple of classes, or they may just need some college credit but not a degree (like if you want to join the military where they'll give you rank based on the number of credits you have). So they're trying to count something that doesn't exist.