The University of Maine System kicked off a new semester Tuesday with its highest spring enrollment in eight years.
Administrators attributed the growth to online degree programs and said it is on track for its seventh consecutive semester of year-over-year enrollment growth.
More than 24,500 students are registered across Maine’s public universities — the most since 2019 and a 1.7% increase from the last spring semester. Credit hours have increased by 2.6%, as more students are taking more courses.
The system’s undergraduate spring semester enrollment is the highest it has been since 2022, while enrollment of students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees is at an all-time high for spring.
“By expanding affordable, accessible programs in high-demand fields, our public universities are creating new pathways to upward mobility and growing Maine’s skilled workforce and economy,” Chancellor Dannel Malloy said in a press release.
The growth is driven largely by a 40% year-over-year increase at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), thanks to its popular YourPace degree and certificate programs. The online programs allow working adults to take courses and advance at their own pace once they demonstrate competency.
The smallest UMS undergraduate university just six years ago, UMPI has now become the system’s third-largest university based on headcount, with more than 3,000 students currently enrolled — a nearly three-fold increase from 2022.
In its strategic plan released in 2023, the university system set a goal of doubling its fully online academic programs by 2028.
The University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) and University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK) have also gained students over last spring, with their highest spring semester enrollment since 2021.
Professional studies, teacher preparation and early childhood education programs are driving UMF’s spring enrollment rebound, while UMFK’s online and hybrid graduate nursing programs, launched in 2023, now enroll more than 150 students.
UMF is also running programs through the YourPace platform in partnership with UMPI, and UMFK will launch programs through YourPace this year.
Meanwhile, the University of Maine School of Law has achieved its highest start-of-semester spring enrollment on record, thanks to its recent ranking as one of the nation’s top law schools based on the strength of its clinical programs and the outcomes of its graduates.
Other UMS universities saw overall enrollment decline from last spring but experienced growth in key workforce areas.
An official student count, known as a census, will take place Feb. 15. In the meantime, as part of its commitment to public transparency, a real-time enrollment tracker is available on the UMaine system’s website.