University of Maine System on track for sixth straight semester of enrollment growth

A tilted view shows part of a building facade, lamp post and tree.

FILE PHOTO / UNIVERSITY OF MAINE The University of Maine System will start its fall semester with at least 25,000 students, reflecting continued enrollment growth.

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By Laurie Schreiber

The University of Maine System will start its fall semester with at least 25,000 students, reflecting continued enrollment growth.

"When our public universities grow, so does Maine’s workforce and economy,” said Dannel Malloy, the system’s chancellor.

Numbers were calculated through Aug. 28, but it was expected that enrollment would continue to increase through the start of the semester, Tuesday, Sept. 2. An official count of students will take place in October.

It’s the system’s sixth consecutive semester of enrollment gains.

The figure — which includes undergraduate, graduate and law students — is an increase over last year and the most since 2021.

Additionally, more than 1,500 Maine high schoolers will get a head start on their postsecondary education through UMS early college, bringing the total number of students served by the system in credit-bearing courses to nearly 26,600.

The 2024-25 school year had 25,286 students enrolled in total, an increase of 763 more compared to the previous academic year.

Various cohorts

Various cohorts contribute to the increase.

Enrollment of first-year, first-time in-state students increased to more than 2,500, led by gains at the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Southern Maine. That compares to about 2,100 incoming in-state students two years ago.
New programs attracting undergraduates include the Downeast nursing track, a partnership between the University of Maine at Machias and UMA. Nine students are in the first cohort.
There is growth in the number of undergraduates transferring into the system from other institutions: 13% more transfer students than last year and 51% more than two years ago.
The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s flexible online competency-based program for busy adults more than doubled enrollment over five years, with 924 transfer students this fall, compared to 138 in 2021.
More working adults are returning to higher education through career-relevant programming, including the University of Maine at Farmington, where the number of transfer students more than doubled in two years.

Graduate students

As the system expands online and in-person programs, its graduate enrollment is climbing, with nearly 5,000 students enrolled for the upcoming fall semester — the most on record.

At UMPI, graduate enrollment has more than doubled from last year, reflecting more graduate students than ever before. At the University of Maine at Fort Kent, graduate nursing programs launched in 2022 with 24 students and 160 are now enrolled.

UMaine in Orono, which enrolls nearly half of the system’s graduate students, has seen a 27% increase in doctoral enrollment from five years ago.

The University of Maine School of Law hit its highest enrollment since 1997, with 292 students.

Free tuition

Most of Maine’s public universities offer free tuition for eligible Maine undergraduate students who qualify for need-based federal Pell grants. As a result, 30% of in-state undergrads paid nothing out-of-pocket for tuition and mandatory fees last year.

The University of Maine System is made up of seven universities — some with multiple campuses — located across the state, as well as a law school, 31 other course sites and the Cooperative Extension. Annual enrollment across the system is around 30,000 students.

The seven universities are in Orono, Augusta, Farmington, Fort Kent, Machias, Presque Isle and Portland/Gorham. Portland is also home to the University of Maine School of Law.

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