A new program aims to make it easier for students to transfer to the University of Maine from the state’s community college system by allowing them to enroll in both at the same time.
The program is intended to give students transferring from one of the state’s seven community colleges to the University of Maine a clear path to earning a bachelor’s degree, said Janet Sortor, Maine Community College System’s vice president and chief academic officer.
Students enrolled in the program, called Black Bear Advantage, will work full time toward their associate’s degree at a community college while also taking an in-person or online course at UMaine each semester.
“It puts community college students on a path to the University of Maine at the start of their academic experience,” Sortor said. “It welcomes students from across the state, from all of our [seven] colleges, to the university.”
Students who choose to participate in the program will have their application fees waived, receive a $2,000 scholarship once they’ve earned their associate’s degree and enroll at UMaine and benefit in other ways, officials said in a news conference Thursday.
While enrollment at community colleges has increased since the state launched a free tuition program for those institutions in 2022, enrollment has fallen by more than 11 percent at the University of Maine System over the past five years. Only the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the University of Maine at Fort Kent saw enrollment grow this year.
In the fall of 2022, UMaine’s Orono campus had 64 transfer students from the Maine Community College System, or 13 percent of the total students transferring from a Maine community college to a university, according to a 2023 report. That’s well below the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Augusta, with transfer students accounting for 40 percent and 26 percent of the total, respectively.
Another factor in designing the program is to help the state accomplish Gov. Janet Mills’ 10-year economic plan, which calls for bringing more people into all levels of the workforce, said Joan Ferrini-Mundy, president of UMaine and UMaine Machias.
“As employers are increasingly seeking individuals with bachelor’s and even more advanced degrees, we have to be certain that the transfer pathways between our community colleges and the University of Maine are smooth and streamlined,” she said.
Those pathways are critical to the growth and competitiveness of Maine’s economy, Ferrini-Mundy said. UMaine is eager to serve those who are ready to continue their education beyond an associate’s degree because they’ll become “leaders, problem solvers and innovators in areas ranging from business to engineering.”
Sortor said an important aspect of the program is making sure students “lose as few credits as possible,” and there will be advisors and other resources to help with that process. When they know the coursework they’ve completed counts toward furthering their education, they will be more likely to earn their bachelor’s degree and reach success, she said.
More than 30 of UMaine’s degree programs are included in Black Bear Advantage, including business, education, engineering technology, psychology and social work. They were chosen for their “high demand” throughout the state, and there will be more degree options available to students as the program expands, said John Volin, UMaine’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Across the country, co-enrollment programs are one way to make higher education accessible to more people, he said.
“We know that students who go on to get a higher education degree have higher career satisfaction, and their earnings are greater throughout their lifetime,” he said. “There’s been a need for something like this [in Maine] for a long time.”