The Maine Community College System's early enrollment is up for the third straight year. Nearly 16,000 students have enrolled across the community college system.
Statewide, enrollment increased roughly 3% from last year, with four of the seven system colleges seeing higher enrollment. Central Maine Community College had the largest growth with a almost 14% increase over last year.
Northern Maine, Washington County and York County community colleges all saw enrollment declines compared to last year. Northern Maine saw the largest decline at 10%.
Enrollment this year includes the last class of students eligible for the state's free community college program. Funding to continue the program did not make it into Governor Jane Mills' biennial budget this spring.
Starting this year, the Maine Community College System changed the way they report fall enrollment to exclude Earl y College students. These are high school students taking community college courses. A statement from Community College Spokesperson Noel Gallagher says this change in reporting will better align them with the way the University of Maine System reports enrollment data.
These data are preliminary and official fall enrollment figures are calculated on October 15th.
