The University of Maine System is expecting a 5% enrollment increase this fall after years of declining student numbers. A preliminary enrollment estimate released Tuesday is the system’s highest since 2021.

An additional 1,200 students have enrolled at system campuses for the 2024-25 school year, bringing total enrollment so far to about 24,400 students. The enrollment numbers are preliminary and won’t be final for several weeks, as students continue to sign up for classes.

Enrollment has generally been declining for about a decade at the University of Maine System, as Maine communities are seeing fewer high school students graduate, and the increasing cost of higher education is causing some to shy away from attending college.

However, a number of factors have caused the trend to reverse, at least for this year.

“There’s no one thing, but a group of strategies we’ve put in place the last few years,” University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy said in an interview with the Press Herald. “We are not surprised at these numbers going up.”

The system’s flagship campus, University of Maine Orono, posted an enrollment of about 10,600, and the incoming freshman class of 2,100 is so far about 13% larger than last year.

Part of the reason for the enrollment increase, according to the university system, is a 39% increase in undergraduate transfers – 650 of them from the Maine Community College System. Maine has made community college tuition free for recent Maine high school graduates. There are about 200 additional students from Maine’s community college system attending University of Maine System colleges compared to two years ago, Malloy said.

And now, because of agreements between Maine’s community college and university systems, community college students can seamlessly transfer to the university system. And high school students taking early college credits can get directly admitted into system colleges, making the transition from high school to college easier, which is another factor in increasing university enrollment, officials said.

Free community college tuition for Maine high school graduates is in its third year, and will end with 2024-25 high school graduates unless the Maine Legislature votes to extend the program.

Early fall enrollment for Maine’s Community College System totaled 16,670 students, compared to 15,334 students last year.

“The clock is ticking on the Free College Scholarship,” said David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System. “The high school class of 2025 is the last graduating class that qualifies for the free college scholarship, so we strongly urge all high school seniors to plan for a tuition-free college experience at Maine’s community colleges.”

Meanwhile, the University of Maine Farmington is seeing its first enrollment increase since 2017, with sign-ups at about 1,600 students, up 11% compared to a year ago.

Joe McDonnell, UMF president, said enrollment has increased in several areas, including first-year students, transfers from community colleges or other universities, and graduate students.

“We have dramatically increased our graduate students,” McDonnell said. He said many of the graduate students are current teachers in Maine’s K-12 schools, because UMF has formed partnerships with many Maine schools to help attract and retain teachers and provide a pathway for teachers to get their master’s degrees from UMF.

McDonnell said the university has also worked to attract non-traditional students, often older students with other jobs, by emphasizing online learning.

“We expected these result once we were able to put these strategies into place,” McDonnell said.

At the University of Southern Maine, which has campuses in Gorham and Portland, enrollment increased 2%, the first increase since 2019. The uptick was fueled by a 19% jump in undergraduate transfer students, many from the community college system.

“The University of Southern Maine combines academic excellence with an incredibly affordable price, meaningful community engagements, and strong employer connections,” said university President Jacqueline Edmondson.

Malloy said new student housing at University of Southern Maine is also helping to attract students. “We’re investing in ourselves, modernizing and rebuilding housing units with investments the System has not seen in a very long time,” he said.