Community colleges face a looming wave of presidential retirements as well as a shortage of qualified replacements, according to a newly released study by researchers at Iowa State University that echoes concerns dating back nearly a decade.

The new study, of 415 community-college presidents, found that 79 percent will retire by 2012. It also found a 78-percent drop in the number of degrees awarded to graduates of programs in community-college leadership from 1983 to 1997.

“Those would be the people who would really be in the chute to take the place of those who were retiring,” said Christopher Duree, a research associate at Iowa State who led the study.

Presidents in the study were, on average, 58 years old, and only a third were women. According to the survey, their two most pressing concerns were fund raising and working with lawmakers. —Paul Fain