SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Many community college graduates in Maine will soon receive guaranteed admission to the state’s public university system. The leaders of the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System inked the agreement Thursday in South Portland.
“It takes away all the challenges a student used to face trying to transfer,” David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, said.
Under the program, called Transfer ME, community college graduates from certain fields—including biotechnology, business, and education—will have the opportunity to choose a Maine university to pursue their bachelor’s degree from any of the seven public universities within the University of Maine System.
For a system of higher education that prides itself on costs and functionality, Gov. Janet Mills and collaborators say they hope the new program will lower the barriers for those with associate degrees to continue their schooling.
“I want to see more students move seamlessly between our higher ed systems,” Mills said Tuesday.
With no application fees, letters of recommendation or essays, the goal is to entice associate degree graduates into two more years.
This strategy comes as the state faces the challenge of maintaining and growing the skilled workforce in the state.
“One of the things that we worry about and maybe holding us back is whether we have the skillset and the population to serve companies that might want to large their footprint," Dannel Malloy, chancellor of the University of Maine System, said.
It’s an issue that could be getting worse.
According to Educate Maine, 54% of high school graduates enrolled in college in the fall of 2022, which is lower than the 60% figure in the fall of 2019.
Enrollment at Maine’s community colleges, however, was up in the fall of 2023, which leaders credit in large part to the state’s tuition-free Free College Scholarship program. Daigler hopes to capitalize on this number to send more students further in their education.
“That’s the growth factor that we want to pass on to the university," Daigler said.
The new Transfer ME program will begin this fall.