PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — For the second year in a row, the University of Maine at Presque Isle has seen the largest percentage increase in enrollment within the University of Maine System, up 10.4 percent in enrollment by headcount from Fall 2017 to Fall 2018. Officials attribute this increase to the initiatives underway at UMPI focused on student affordability, early college opportunities, and access for adult learners.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that college is The Way It Should Be at the University of Maine at Presque Isle for our students, from providing free tuition and fees for eligible Maine students to offering off-calendar courses for adults working to complete the degree they haven’t finished yet,” said UMPI President Ray Rice. “Those factors led to us welcoming more than 310 newly matriculated students — the biggest incoming class we’ve seen in five years.”
Within the headcount increase UMPI experienced this fall, in-state student numbers are up 12.1 percent. A major reason those numbers are up so significantly is due to UMPI’s The Way It Should Be program and its commitment to Maine students and families, on-time degree completion, and the needs of the Maine workforce, Rice said.
The Way It Should Be ensures that first-time, full-time Pell-eligible Maine residents pay no out-of-pocket costs for tuition and fees, saving them over $8,000 per year. It also provides significantly reduced tuition and fees for other eligible Maine residents, reducing their cost by nearly 40 percent.
The university also experienced increases in its credit-hour generation and full-time equivalent (FTE) numbers, two other important enrollment measurements. Both FTE and credit-hour numbers rose 3.3 percent from fall 2017 to fall 2018, and within those areas, in-state student figures were up 4.8 percent.
Another reason these numbers are up so significantly is due to UMPI’s YourPace program, which welcomed 50 new students this year. This $2,000 per semester accredited online program was designed to meet the needs of adult learners with some college but no degree and allows them to get college credit for their past learning and work experience. UMPI is the first public university in New England to offer such a competency-based education degree program.
In addition, UMPI continues to lead the system in terms of its dual enrollment/early college efforts. UMPI has produced more than 3,550 undergraduate credit hours, a 30.4 percent increase over last year. The University primarily serves the high schools within its geographic region; successes there have led to new strategic partnerships with organizations such as the Hyde School in Bath.
Dual enrollment allows students to earn credit toward both a high school degree and a Bachelor’s degree for specific courses they take for a greatly reduced price. Through its partnership with the State of Maine, UMPI is able to keep the direct costs that students pay to just $15 per credit, a savings of more than 90 percent over the traditional cost for a Maine resident attending UMPI this year.
“With all of these efforts, our focus is on further developing and helping to facilitate career pathways from high school through post-graduate work so that people not only get the training they need for a job but can continue to develop and grow throughout their career,” Rice said. “This is all part of the important work we need to do as an institution to best address the workforce needs of our region and our state.”
For more information about any of the new program offerings at UMPI, contact the Admissions Office at (207) 768-9532 or umpi-admissions@maine.edu.
Submitted by the Community and Media Relations Office of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
