The University of Maine System last December hired Noel-Levitz, a higher education consulting firm, to identify ways to boost enrollment and to see if there is room to change tuition rates for Maine’s seven universities.
The firm began the analysis in January. They are expected to release the results in May.
UMS signed a contract with the firm for $240,000 for a “strategic pricing market analysis,” which will identify the university system’s competitors and determine how much to charge for tuition, as well as provide an analysis of enrollment. “It’s everything from retention to getting more students,” said Peggy Markson, spokeswoman for UMS
UMS will also likely sign a second contract with the firm for $250,000, which will analyze the “best use of financial aid by campus,” according to USM Spokesman Bob Caswell.
The studies are the result of the New Challenges, New Directions Work Plan, a proposal penned by a task force of system administrators and approved by the Board of Trustees last November. The plan was designed to provide a blueprint for administrators as they seek to restructure the university system in the face of declining state funding.
The plan calls for UMS to “commission a system-wide study of price elasticity and affordability in relationship to the Public Agenda goal of increasing access to higher education,” whose purpose is to “devise a financial model which enables the System as a whole and each university to both maximize enrollment potential and provide an accessible, affordable education to its students.”
The study will also identify the amount of students the system can “reasonably sustain.”
Enrollment at USM this past year has been relatively flat. This spring, 9,182 students were enrolled, compared with 9,145 one year ago, according to Caswell.
USM is also competing for students with community colleges like Husson and Southern Maine Community College, schools that have seen enrollments rise as USM’s have fallen.
“The problem is the high school graduating numbers are dropping; there are fewer students in Maine’s high schools and the numbers will drop for years. Then we have half of the students graduating high school going to college [outside] Maine,” said President Selma Botman.
“I’m encouraged that [Noel-Levitz] will have some expert advice in this,” she said.