Thomas College enrollment rises, bucking national decline
Courtesy / Thomas College
This weekend, Thomas College in Waterville will welcome students back to campus.
Bucking a national decline in college enrollment, Thomas College said it is attracting more new students and keeping more of them after the first year.
The career-focused institution, which has been led by President Laurie Lachance for more than a decade, said that new student undergraduate enrollment is up 19% while online graduate program enrollment is 48% higher than last year.
The Waterville college also said that first-year retention is outpacing previous years.
“COVID taught us that strategy and following a plan is crucial to success. We are obviously on the other side of those difficult times and back on track,” said COO Todd Smith. “Our community is growing and thriving. It’s a great time to be a Thomas College Terrier.”
The news comes amid falling enrollment across the United States, where total post-secondary enrollment fell to 16.2 million this spring, representing one-year decline of 4.1%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, based in Herndon, Va.
U.S. enrollment has fallen sharply since the start of the pandemic, with postsecondary institutions losing nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020.
Thomas College released its enrollment data before welcome new and returning students to campus over the upcoming holiday weekend, with classes set to start on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
During the peak of the pandemic in summer 2020, Thomas College launched its graduate programs fully online.
Two years later, the number of online course registrations for the fall term are expected to be 43% higher than fall 2021. The number of students enrolled in online programs is up 48% over last year.
Smith attributed the growth to a a combination of factors, including an unprecedented number of May graduates who chose to go right into online degree programs, teachers returning to finish or start their degrees post-COVID, and new employer partnerships.
Thomas College offers several online degrees and certificates of advanced study in the school's graduate and professional studies division including business, criminology, cybersecurity and education.
Lachance, a 2022 Mainebiz Woman to Watch honoree, recently told Mainebiz that two-thirds of Thomas College students are first-generation college students and 80% are from rural Maine.
"When they come to college, they are seeking a good job that's going to change their lives and their families' lives, so we help them build good career skills so they can land the job of their dreams and change their careers," she said. "It has always been central to the Thomas College experience to prepare them to be proud members of their communities."
About half of students play a varsity sport at Thomas, which is set to open a newly built athletic facility this fall.
The 18,000-square-foot Sports Center is a project of Sheridan Construction Corp., of Fairfield, and Farmington-based E.L. Vining & Son Inc., and designed by Portland-based SMRT Architects.
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