Three local colleges have been recognized as top places to work.

Elon and Duke universities and Wake Technical Community College made the latest "Great Colleges to Work For" survey from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Chronicle, a national trade publication covering higher education issues, noted 97 of 275 universities it surveyed. Designated universities had to stand out in at least 1 of 12 categories the magazine deemed crucial to maintaining a good workplace.

Wake Tech was honored in five categories:  collaborative governance, job satisfaction and support, confidence in senior leadership, supervisor or department chair relationship, and respect and appreciation. In addition, Wake Tech was named to the 2010 Great Colleges Honor Roll for receiving the most recognition in its size category.

Duke was recognized for facilities, workspaces and security, while Elon ranked high for collaborative governance, teaching environment, facilities, workspaces and security, confidence in senior leadership, and respect and appreciation.

Business is booming at Wake Technical Community College.

This past weekend, more than 1,300 students graduated from the community college. That's a whopping 28 percent increase in graduates over last year, an indication of the surge in demand for higher education when the economy hits the skids.

As Tommy Goldsmith reports today, the college has come a long way from its humble beginnings as the Wake County Industrial Education Center, which opened in 1963 enrolling 34 students.

A N.C. House budget proposal brokered late this week brought at least a temporary measure of relief to community college officials and local police and fire chiefs alike.

As budget writers in recent weeks have grappled with growing deficits, they had considered axing waivers traditionally given to police, fire, EMS and other service agencies who take continuing education and other training courses at community colleges.

These waivers are valuable: police and fire agencies large and small have long relied on them to keep their officers current and certified. And there's real value to them; this year, Wake Technical Community College provides $2.47 million worth of free - or "waived" - courses to police, fire, EMS workers as well as prison inmates and senior citizens. Durham Technical Community College provides nearly $500,000 this year, and Alamance Community Technical College chips in $677,000.

That's a lot of training.

"The argument has been that these are folks who put their lives on the line," said Bill Ingram, Durham Tech's president. "Many of them must have this training on an ongoing basis."

Culinary classes boost our food writer, Andrea Weigl's, bravery

Each year, the state's community college system honors two students at each of its 58 campuses with awards for academic excellence.

It has a jazzy website with mini-profiles of each of these students.

Check it out here.

Locally, Erin Munise and Randy Cooper are the Durham Tech winners. At Wake Tech,  Andreas Winston and Georgina Consolo were honored.

In today's News & Observer, a story about an alternat route to a degree at UNC Chapel Hill or N.C. State for those aspiring students who don't quite make the cut right out of high school.

Community college. Increasingly, four-year colleges are joining forces with local community colleges and forging direct links that, in fact, may provide an easier route for some students to eventually get their four-year degrees.

Read all about it here.

Some good pub this week for Wake Tech. It's new north Raleigh campus, which opened last year, is featured this week in Inside Higher Ed, an industry publication, for its environmentally responsible design.

As the story notes, natural light is abundant within the three buildings at this new campus. As the campus dean puts it:

"We often don't turn the lights on in the classroom. We don't need it."

Community colleges are increasingly entering into formal agreements with four-year colleges that allow their students seamless transition from one to the other.

The latest is Wake Technical Community College, which this week entered into a relationship with Mount Olive College that will let Wake Tech graduates transfer easily into a full range of bachelor's degree programs at any of Mount Olive's six campuses in eastern North Carolina.

Wake Tech has similar agreements with Campbell University, N.C. State and East Carolina.