Holyoke Community College’s mission is to serve the Pioneer Valley by providing comprehensive, high-quality educational opportunities that are responsive to community needs and meet the intellectual, esthetic, and practical needs of a diverse student body. The college offers the full range of programs and services appropriate to a community college as defined by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s generic system-wide community college mission statement. In addition, the college will continue to focus upon the following strengths that distinguish Holyoke Community College from other colleges.

Holyoke Community College (HCC) ranks among the best community colleges in the U.S. for 2021, according to Academic Influence, a technology-driven education-evaluation group. HCC was listed 20th out of 839 community colleges nationwide.

In particular, HCC was noted for the strength of its academic programs in criminal justice, nursing, computer science, business, education, and engineering.