Copyright MassLive
While undergraduate enrollment at Massachusetts public colleges has rebounded from pre-pandemic levels, the recovery is largely being fueled by one sector of the population: community colleges. That is because of a surge in students following the state’s implementation of free community college. Since fall 2022, community college enrollment has grown by nearly 39% with an increase of 23,977 students. Meanwhile, the University of Massachusetts and state university systems are still below pre-pandemic undergraduate enrollment levels, according to preliminary data released on Tuesday. “We are glad that we’re seeing a trend that’s moving in the right direction in Massachusetts. And so we’re hoping to see more of that with the investments happening in affordability, because for many reasons, cost is a big driving factor,” Department of Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega said in an interview with MassLive. Read more: After cuts to community colleges, Mass. Senate moves to restore some funding Outside of free community college, the UMass system and certain state institutions have also announced free tuition programs, but Ortega said they may need more publicity and time to see similar successes to free community college. What Ortega is more concerned about than enrollment trends are completion and persistence rates, which measure whether someone stays or finishes their degree, he said. “Growth is still needed in our success efforts, right? We’ve said time and time again, it’s not just enough to get students into the door, we want to make sure that they get through and out and start contributing to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Ortega said during a Massachusetts Board of Higher Education meeting on Tuesday. “We’ve got completion rates that fall below the national average in our community colleges, but also our state universities are struggling with completion rates,” he said. The data released on Tuesday is still preliminary, and more information — such as information on Pell Grant eligible students — will be released in the coming months. Final enrollment information is expected to be submitted in December. What does the data show? As community college enrollment has continued to rise, undergraduate enrollment at state universities has stayed mostly flat and UMass campuses increased by less than 1% compared to the prior year. The state institutions that have seen the largest declines over the past four years include Framingham State University and Salem State University. Other institutions, like Bridgewater State University and Mass Maritime, have been increasing enrollment and beginning to rebound from the pandemic in the past four years. Across all of public higher education, completion rates are still of concern. Overall, the largest gaps in public higher education in Massachusetts are with respect to the Black and Hispanic students. As white students in public higher education in Massachusetts are largely making improvements in completion, there are big dips or flatlines for Black or Hispanic students. The state is attempting to address some of these gaps by expanding a program called SUCCESS, Supporting Urgent Community College Equity through Student Services, and bringing it to state universities, Ortega said. The program provides support services to students, like academic advising or peer mentoring, to boost graduation rates. He said the state is also emphasizing work-based learning programs, similar to Northeastern University’s co-op program. The learning outcomes of all students attending public higher education, regardless of racial background, are still of concern, he said. In community colleges and at UMass campuses, the number of students completing their degree in six years has been flat. Completion rates at state universities have been on a steady decline. However, community colleges and state universities have seen some recent progress with transfer student rates to four-year degree programs. Read more: Foreign student arrivals to the US have hit a decade low, excluding the pandemic Meanwhile, international undergraduate enrollment has experienced a slight decline in public higher education in Massachusetts. Some institutions even saw slight increases, like at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. However, the declines across the board in public higher education aren’t significant because there isn’t a large portion of international students in public higher education. The decline comes at a time when the United States is facing the most significant decline in international students entering the country in August since the pandemic. Among the actions the federal government has taken toward foreign students are the temporary pause of visa interviews, the temporary revocation of hundreds of student visas or their legal statuses and the creation of travel bans or restrictions in 19 countries. The Trump administration also announced plans to limit the length of time international students can stay in the U.S. and has attempted to arrest, detain and deport international students and academics who engaged in pro-Palestine activism.
