Maine Gov. Janet Mills (left) applauds as UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy and David Daigler, president of Maine’s community college system, announce the new Transfer ME partnership. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/ Maine Morning Star)
Maine Community College students are now guaranteed admission to at least one of the state’s public universities after they finish their associate degree.
In a new partnership announced Wednesday by the Maine Community College and University of Maine systems, Maine’s community colleges will proactively notify their students about transfer opportunities to public universities after they finish 30 credits — or approximately, their first year — at the community college.
Students don’t have to apply, pay fees, or send transcripts to the university to initiate the transfer if they participate in this new program, launching this fall.
“I think one of the one of the immediate attractions to a student is that it’s guaranteed admission,” said David Daigler, president of Maine’s community college system.
“We jointly counsel them, we work with them, we make sure that they’re on track, and they can at that point, opt in … to get direct admission to a university. And then when they graduate from the community college, they get a letter of acceptance from the university.”
Although this partnership, called Transfer ME, builds on more than 180 articulation agreements between the two institutions, which allowed different courses taken at the community college is considered to be the same in terms of their credit-worthiness as a course taken at the university, it was a complicated system for students to navigate to figure out which courses counted, which was holding them back from pursuing a transfer even if they were interested, according to Daigler.
The partnership, called Transfer ME, builds on more than 180 articulation agreements between the two institutions, which allowed various community college courses to be considered the same credit-worthiness as a course taken at the university. However, that was a complicated system for students to navigate and, according to Daigler, was holding them back from pursuing a transfer even if they were interested.
“Those students have new opportunities to go to a four-year institution because it’s just a simplified process,” he said. “They don’t have to figure it out. We’ll figure it out for them.”
At the event announcement at Southern Maine Community College on Wednesday, Gov. Janet Mills emphasized the importance of this partnership on workforce and economic development in Maine.
“No more wondering if you can continue your education in Maine,” she said. “You can and you should, because a four-year degree program and a rewarding career are here waiting for you right here in Maine.”
Two years ago, Maine’s community colleges started offering tuition-free associates’ degrees, which was an important benchmark in signing this agreement, Daigler said. The community college system’s enrollment increased by about 20 percent, or 4,500 students since it started offering free college. Now, those students have a clear pathway to a baccalaureate degree, both Daigler and UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy said.
“We’re already seeing an increased number of people transferring, and what we want to do is start that process earlier, really to make life easier for the person who’s going to get their associate degree and then wants to get into a baccalaureate program,” Malloy said.
When Maine’s community colleges started the free college initiative, the chancellor predicted that there might be a slight drop in enrollment in the first and second year students at the state’s public universities, but also expected an increase in transfer student enrollment — which the system has already begun to see, he said.
According to Daigler, the increase in community college enrollment is not due to students choosing community colleges over state universities, but rather offering a tuition-free associate degree has opened the door to many students that were not considering or could not afford to go to college at all.
Transfer agreements in other states, such as Florida, Rhode Island, and Virginia, have proven to boost both student success and enrollment.
“What I think has happened is one system looked at the other system as competition. And I think what David and I are trying to do is make it truly a partnership,” Malloy said. “And now we’re cooperating to the greatest extent possible to make sure that the students that we will share will be successful.”
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