For the first time since the pandemic, student enrollment increases in state college system

Higher education enrollment in Massachusetts is up for the first time in years thanks in part to free community college programs, according to state education officials.

Student enrollment in the Massachusetts higher education system increased by 6.5% between the fall of 2023 and 2024. Enrollment at Massachusetts 15 community colleges grew by 14% over the last year.

MassEducate, which launched this fall, made community college fee free for Massachusetts residents who don't already have a degree and who plan to enroll in at least six hours of class credits per term.

"This level of growth is just not something we've seen in the past. The last time we saw something like this was the late 2000s," said Mario Delci, Associate Commissioner of Research and Planning during a Department of Higher Education board meeting Tuesday morning.

“We’ve seen through MassReconnect, MassEducate and our public higher education system that when college is made accessible and affordable, students are eager to enroll and get the education they deserve,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a press release highlighting the increase.

Recent growth in early college programming for Massachusetts high school students is also driving more students to the community college system.

The enrollment jump at the state's nine small public four-year universities like Framingham State, MassArt and Worcester State, was much more modest at just over 1%. The University of Massachusetts system stayed relatively stagnant, showing a 0.1% increase in students since last year.

But state officials say even modest growth among state colleges and the UMass system is still a win. This is the first year since the pandemic that all three parts of the state higher education system had an overall increase in students.

"If you were to draw a line from 2019 through to today we're actually a little bit higher than than we would have expected it to be based on demographic trends and where we were headed as a system with enrollment before the pandemic,"said Delci.

Still, officials like Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education Noe Ortega acknowledged during the board meeting that enrollment is only half of the picture. Helping students finish their certificate and degree programs is also important.

"It's not just enough to get students into our colleges," Ortega said. "It's important that we figure out how to get them to persist and get through our colleges. So this way they can be contributing to the viability of the commonwealth of Massachusetts."

The state tracks several factors to measure student success, including whether a student re-enrolled in a second year of college and if they can maintain a steady pace of class credit accruals.

Most of those factors have shown relatively flat growth over the last decade. For example, in 2023 about 34% of community college students completed their degree or certificate programs within six years. That's held steady since 2013. Gaps between Black, Hispanic, and white student success metrics have also remained similar during that time.

However, there was one bright spot in the student success metrics. About 64% of community college transfer students at the UMass system and 59% at state universities are completing their four year degrees. That's up from 56% and 55% respectively in 2013.