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September 11, 2013

State university enrollment falls

The University of Maine System has seen steadily declining enrollment in recent years, spurring new efforts to recruit students from out of state and abroad.

Early estimates show enrollment in Maine’s university system is about 900 students lower than projected for this fall’s semester, but Maine still fares better than the national rate of decline in college enrollment.

The Portland Press Herald reported enrollment is down nearly 3% from last fall’s final enrollment of 31,000 students, to 30,096 students. Rosa Redonnett, the system’s executive director of student affairs, said the challenge for the system is a steadily declining number of high school graduates in the state. In 2008, she said, there were more than 14,000 and in 2012 that had declined by nearly 1,000 students.

Nationally, a report from the U.S. Census Bureau found that college enrollment dropped by nearly half-a-million students from 2011 to 2012 and a study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found spring 2013 enrollment declined another 2%.

Officials told the paper that there still might be time for late additions to the student population. Last year, the University of Southern Maine, which has a 782-student, or 8%, drop in enrollment in preliminary figures, added around 300 students before the final enrollment figures were released in mid-October.

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