PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Personalized classes, affordability, degree options, convenience, and high-quality education are just some of the reasons students choose the University of Maine at Presque Isle for their higher education.
This semester, though, the university has seen a 10 percent rise in enrollment, an increase more than any other University of Maine System campus.
"All of my professors, they make the effort to ask the Canadian students' perspective and when we are having class discussions and get insights on our experiences," student Bethany Jensen said.
Bethany Jensen is a Canadian student who crosses the border to Maine for classes at UMPI. She says the social work program at the university is strong, but even stronger is the fact that Canadian students can get "in-state" tuition at UMPI.
"UMPI has this program called the Next Door tuition program, where Canadian students pay the same amount of tuition as Maine students," Jensen explained.
That was a game-changer for her and more than 80 other Canadian students who, just like Jensen, are enrolled at UMPI, thanks to that offering. Rice says it's the largest number the campus has seen in a decade just from Canada.
"It's been really fortunate because it's allowed students that are geographically located 20 miles away from us to come to the campus and take advantage of our programs," Dr. Ray Rice, president at UMPI, said.
Rice says UMPI has seen a great growth, especially this year.
"We are up over 12 percent right now, so that's a little bit over 1,200 students in our campus. That's more than 100 more students than we had a year ago at this time," the president said. "We've also seen a 40 percent increase in new enrollments prior to the pandemic."
Another popular program that's helping boost numbers is called YourPace.
That program provides a competency-based online pathway that gives adult learners the ability to complete a bachelor’s degree online in as few as 18 months.
"That allows students to get credit for the work that they've done in their businesses during their careers and also transfer courses that they've taken prior, whether it's a two-year program or a four-year program, and really gives them an accelerated path to degree completion," Rice said about YourPace.
According to Rice, UMPI is the only public institution in New England that's offering such program. Currently the program has 369 students. That's 50 percent more than last year.
"[We are] realizing that it's a program that's really meeting a need here in the state of Maine but also across the country," Rice said.
Rice says back in the day most students who went to school there were local or from Aroostook County. Nowadays most students are from out-of-state (157 students from 17 states) or international.
“Being able to serve these multiple populations of students is helping us to thrive in what is an extremely difficult time for many higher education institutions post-pandemic," he said.
"We made that decision that we wanted to ensure we had programs that are important to Aroostook County and important to the infrastructure and the communities here, but also we erased the geographical limitations that a small campus in a rural area faces," Rice said.
The university is also offering increased online courses for students who aren't physically go to class in person but are available to take classes online.
Officials at UMPI say it also provides out-of-state students a $1,500 annual housing grant for those who live on campus.
“We are so pleased to see this growth over the last year and proud of the work UMPI has done to create a high quality and very affordable college experience for all of our students,” Sue White, UMPI director of admissions, said. “We’ve been able to hold the line on tuition—and also fees—for several years and are the top regional college in Maine for graduates with least debt, all of which is no doubt playing a part in the increases we’re seeing.”
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