Helen Hemminger, Research and KIDS COUNT Associate, Maine Children's Alliance
Maine’s college students – like students of all ages – were profoundly affected by the pandemic. The declines in college enrollment in Maine reflect the trends nationally. Maine’s public university and community college systems have played a critical role in addressing the needs of students during this unprecedented time. Federal funding from the American Rescue Act offers an opportunity for continued support to help students meet their higher education goals.
When the pandemic struck in March 2020, students were midway through their spring semester. Suddenly, traditional undergraduate college students across the country who had been enjoying the full on-campus experience found everything changed. Most colleges switched quickly from primarily in-person learning to mostly remote learning. For many students, the online course experience made it more difficult to learn. For others, online learning was more accessible and had advantages. For some students, the pandemic brought other challenges that impacted their education , such as job loss, child care demands, and new responsibilities with their families.
In Maine, the higher education community, including private institutions, worked to develop a framework for returning to in-person learning safely by the fall of 2020. Yet, online learning continues to be an important mode of instruction even as students have returned to living on campuses at the University of Maine System. By the spring semester of 2021, online courses accounted for 83% of all credit hours of the University of Maine system. This is up from 28% of all credit hours delivered online in Spring 2020.
Percentage of classes online and in-person at the University of Maine System
Note that courses may be coded as remote, but that does not mean all students took them remotely or that they were remote for the entire semester. Remote also includes hybrid learning (hyflex) that is offered in-person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online.
College Enrollment Trends
Nationally, overall postsecondary enrollment dropped by 3.5%, or 603,000 students, comparing spring semester 2021 with spring semester 2020. Mirroring this, the undergraduate head count for Maine’s public 4-year college system decreased 3.3% , excluding high school students enrolled in early college. According to Samantha Warren, Director of Government & Community Relations, the University of Maine System offered timely supports to meet their basic and academic needs. These included expanding in-person and telehealth counseling services, providing near immediate reimbursement for room and board when campuses closed, quickly distributing federal student emergency aid, maintaining food and housing for those who did not have a stable home to go to, and establishing hundreds of parking lot Wi-Fi hot spots across Maine. With these supports, 98.5% of students in the UMaine system persisted with their courses when the pandemic hit, slightly exceeding performance from the spring semester of the prior year before the pandemic. 1
Maine’s public 2-year colleges had a slightly higher enrollment decline than 2-year colleges nationwide. Comparing spring 2021 semester to spring 2020 before the pandemic, Maine community college enrollment decreased 10.6% compared to the national decline of 9.5% at 2-year colleges. 2
Looking at both public 4-year and public 2-year colleges in Maine, spring enrollments were down by approximately 2,200 students from 2020 to 2021.
| Enrollment Declines | |||
| Headcount of Students enrolled | Spring 2020 Semester | Spring 2021 Semester | Decline in enrollment |
| UMaine System undergraduates excluding early college students | 21,039 | 20,345 | -694 |
| Maine Community College degree seeking students 3 | 14,352 | 12,827 | -1,525 |
Reasons for the enrollment declines at community colleges during the pandemic are tied to the challenges many students faced even before the pandemic. Students at community college s are more likely to come from low-income families, to be working in essential jobs, to be parents themselves, and to be juggling work and school, than the undergraduates at 4-year public colleges. For these reasons, community college students were disproportionally affected by the pandemic both nationally and here in Maine. Maine Community College System’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Noel Gallagher said, “COVID-19 impacted the community college population harder than most. Parents and students lost jobs, already scarce and expensive childcare options disappeared, and community college students who are parents of young children — or caretakers for their elders — are managing complicated home lives.“ 4
Like the University of Maine System, during the pandemic, the Maine Community College System shifted to remote learning, and greatly expanded student supports. Tutoring, library and counseling services were moved online, with expanded early morning and evening hours. New technology assistance and aid was distributed so that all remote learners had the technology (computers, hotspots, special dispensation to come on campus if they couldn’t study from home) they needed to access courses. The community college food pantries added curbside pickup. Emergency financial assistance — to help with basic food, housing and transportation costs — began right away, and the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges launched a four-year $1M fundraising effort to provide emergency aid at all seven colleges. 5
During the pandemic, more women than men lost employment and many women left the labor force to care for children who were not attending schools in-person. For this reason, some predicted that more women would leave college than men. However, college enrollment among men was already declining before the pandemic, and the pandemic exacerbated that trend.
Men's enrollment declined more than women's comparing Spring Semester 2020 to Spring Semester 2021
| Type of institution | Men | Women | Overall |
| University of Maine System (undergraduate head count excluding Early College) | -5.4% | -1.4% | -3.3% |
| Public 4-year Universities in US | -2.7% | 1.0% | -1.9% |
| Maine Community College System 6 | -17.0% | -6.0% | -10.6% |
| Community Colleges in US | -14.4% | -6.0% | -9.5% |
A survey by New America attempted to uncover the reasons why more men left college when the pandemic hit. Their survey found men were more likely to say they did not want to take classes online, and/or didn’t have internet access or had unreliable internet. Men who stopped attending were also more likely than women to be enrolled in hands-on education such as construction or manufacturing.
2020 High School Graduates Starting College
Maine students who were high school seniors in March 2020 graduated at about the same rate as the year before at 87.5%. But due to the changing demographics of Maine, there were fewer students in 12 th grade , resulting in 460 fewer graduates. For the fall of 2020, there were 611 fewer Maine high school graduates enrolled in either Maine’s public 4-year or public 2-year colleges. This drop of 11.3% is due to both the impact of COVID-19 and a declining pool of students. Nationally, for the fall of 2020, enrollments from high school directly to college dropped 6.8%.
Fewer high school graduates in Maine started college within 12 months, Fall 2020
College Persistence of Recent High School Graduates
Nationally, the rate of recent high school graduates persisting to their second year in the fall of 2020 fell from 75.9% to 73.9%, the largest drop since 2012. For Maine high school students graduating in May 2019 and persisting to the second year of college in the fall of 2020, the rates were similar to the national rates, declining from 77.1% to 75.1%.
Looking Ahead
During the pandemic, online learning greatly expanded at the University of Maine System, and it is likely that online courses will not fall to pre-pandemic levels. New pandemic-related federal funding of $120 million coupled with a $71 million federal grant received in December will increase broadband services in Maine. This will be helpful for students who are accessing online education from Maine’s most rural communities. That said, for the fall of 2021, Maine public 2-year and 4-year colleges anticipate returning more fully to in-person learning.
To ensure student success, the Maine Community College System as well as the University of Maine System will need to continue offering expanded mental health services, access to adequate food, safe places to study, internet access and other basic supports. Such wraparound supports should also include access to affordable child care. A national study shows that student supports can reduce enrollment declines.
It will be critical to have viable career pathways for young adults who were in high school or college in 2020 and 2021, so they can access good jobs that provide meaningful work and a livable wage. It is noteworthy that Maine plans to use $35 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to support the community college system and build career ladders in healthcare and other vital industries. Also, the Maine Department of Labor has been awarded a separate $5.5 million federal grant to strengthen apprenticeships for trades.
As part of the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan , to meet workforce development needs in emerging economic sectors, an additional $35 million is slated for the University of Maine from the federal American Rescue Plan. Both the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System have held tuition flat. The need-based Maine State Grant was increased by Maine’s legislature from $1,500 to $2,500 beginning with the fall 2021 semester. There is also proposed federal legislation to double the award amounts for Pell grants for college students who are low-income. Data shows that when low-income college students receive additional grants, they are more likely to persist and complete college — an effect substantially strengthened when grant aid was combined with additional supports. Efforts to lower costs and to provide additional supports will increase access to higher education for Maine students who were most affected by the pandemic.
Maine public and community college students have faced the same challenges during the pandemic as students nationally. These unprecedented times call for increased access to mental health supports and financial aid for students and an investment in public higher education institutions themselves. Quality in-state public higher education is what all our young people deserve and is essential to growing Maine’s economy.
1. Email from Samantha Warren, Director of Government & Community Relations, University of Maine System
2. National Student Clearinghouse, https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/CTEE_Report_Spring_2021.pdf Table 8b, page 14. and Maine enrollment data from an email from Noel Gallagher, Maine Community College System Director of Communications and Public Affairs
3. Email from Noel Gallagher, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Maine Community College System
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Ibid