AUGUSTA, ME (MCCS) — Early fall enrollment is up 3.2 % at Maine’s community colleges for a third straight year of record-breaking enrollment at the seven colleges.
“We’re proud to be reporting another year of record enrollment. Maine’s community colleges are great places to get an excellent education at an unbeatable price. It’s no surprise more people are taking advantage of this incredible opportunity,” said David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System (MCCS). “Students leave here prepared for good-paying jobs in high-demand fields right here in Maine, or ready to transfer to a four-year college.”
Maine’s community colleges have undergone a transformative shift in the last five years, vastly expanding short-term workforce training programs of less than a year, adding new certificates and degree programs to respond to market demands, streamlining academic planning, and introducing remote learning options to serve students who can’t attend on campus. Outside the classroom, campus life is more robust, with new sports teams, expanded student housing options, and enhanced student life activities.
At the same time, and with the strong support of Governor Janet Mills and Maine’s legislature, the colleges have been able to offer tuition-free college for recent high-school graduates through the Free College Scholarship. MCCS also has new guaranteed transfer agreements with the University of Maine System and six independent colleges in the state. Enrollment is also strengthened by the steady retention rate of students who started in recent years.
“We are very connected to our students, and we want to make it as easy as possible for someone to come here to build their future, learn what they need to get a new or better job, gain confidence in their skills, and make meaningful connections with the people around them,” Daigler said. “That’s what success looks like.”
As of Wednesday, 15,976 students had enrolled this fall, up 3.2% from 15,474 students on the same day last year. Tuition and fees for a full-time in-state student are $4,156 a year, the lowest in New England.
Starting this year, MCCS has changed the way it reports fall enrollment to exclude Early College students, who are high school students taking community college courses at their high school or at a college campus. Updating the reporting method aligns MCCS with the University of Maine System, which began excluding Early College students from its enrollment reports several years ago. The change also ensures transparency in the makeup of Maine’s community college student body.
Using the new model, early fall enrollment at Maine’s community colleges has increased 21% since fall 2019 (the last pre-COVID fall class) and increased 16% since 2017.
Early fall enrollment figures do not include short-term workforce training students at Maine’s community colleges. More than 39,000 students have taken short-term workforce training classes through MCCS since January 2022, when the system received the first in a series of significant grants from the Harold Alfond Foundation earmarked for no- or low-cost short-term training that takes just weeks or months to complete.
Official fall enrollment figures are calculated on October 15.
