Early fall enrollment at Maine's community colleges is up by 18% over last year, and has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Higher education enrollment in Maine and across the country fell dramatically in the first few years of the pandemic. But David Daigler, the president of the Maine Community College System, says the state's free community college program has brought many of those students back.
"What has been a remarkable side effect, is that conversation has begun to spin out to other groups," he says.
Those other groups include students who enrolled in short-term training programs in certain trades through community colleges, and have now decided to enroll full-time and seek a degree.
"We're finding students who were in one of our short-term training programs, who said, 'You know, you convinced me that I can do it. So I'm going to give it a try,'" Daigler says.
The system says enrollment was also boosted by the rollback of some pandemic restrictions, and by the expansion of nursing programs.
Enrollment in higher education has been generally falling in Maine and across the country, largely due to an aging population with declining numbers of high school graduates.
The University of Maine System is reporting an enrollment drop of 2% this fall.
