Preliminary counts for enrollment across Maine’s seven public universities and law school show that student enrollment could exceed 28,000 this school year, continuing an upward trend in enrollment driven by online learners.

Officials said the preliminary head count, which happens before the public university system completes an official census in October, is the highest in 10 years. 

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is the reason for much of the growth. It saw the most gains due to the YourPace Program, which offers self-paced degrees for adults online. In the past five years, preliminary head counts show that the northern campus has more than doubled, with the number of students growing from about 1,160 students in August 2022 to more than 4,000 students now. 

Last school year’s fall census, which comes after the preliminary head counts, showed that more than 2,260 of Presque Isle’s students were YourPace learners.

University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy said that programs such as YourPace are helping adult learners get back into higher education.

“It’s going to help them. It’s going to help their family. It’s going to help our economy in Maine and help us fill jobs,” Malloy said. “This is an important change, I think, in many ways for our system over the last three years — really spending time and energy to reach out to those folks who, for many different reasons, never got the degree that they started. We want to close that gap.”

YourPace recently came under fire when The Washington Post reported that some online learners were completing what might otherwise be multi-year degrees in a matter of months. One North Carolina resident, the outlet reported, received a master’s and bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in just nine weeks, and it only cost her about $4,000.

University officials said that the program, which is accredited, is designed for adult learners who have already earned credits elsewhere. This means that adult learners can finish their degrees in shorter amounts of time. The online classes are less expensive than a traditional degree program as students pay a flat rate for tuition.

The online program is not designed for recent high school graduates, but rather for working adults with prior learning and experience, University of Maine System spokesperson Samantha Warren said.

“Are we concerned about reporting on the speed at which some people are earning their degrees? No. In fact, we’re excited about it,” Warren said. “If this program is meeting adult learner needs and also the rigorous expectations of our accreditor and employers, then it doesn’t matter that people can move through quickly to a degree that reflects their knowledge, skills, and professional and academic learning.”

The enrollment boost comes as higher education institutions across the nation face looming enrollment cliffs due to declines in the number of students enrolling in college after high school and a shrinking number of students graduating high school. 

Here is how enrollment has changed at universities across the University of Maine System between the fall of 2022 and the start of this school year:

• University of Maine in Orono and University of Maine at Machias: 11,396 to 10,674 students, 6.3 percent decrease.
• University of Maine at Augusta: 3,353 to 3,005 students, 10.4 percent decrease.
• University of Maine at Farmington: 1,542 to 1,691 students, 9.7 percent increase.
• University of Maine at Fort Kent: 710 to 919 students, 29.4 percent increase.
• University of Maine at Presque Isle: 1,162 to 4,076 students, 250.8 percent increase.
• University of Southern Maine:  6,295 to 6,000 students, 4.7 percent decrease.
• University of Maine School of Law: 268 to 297 students, 10.8 percent increase.
• (Both University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias head counts were previously conducted separately until the 2024 head count. All head counts reflect tallies as of Aug. 30, 2026.)

The public university system has launched initiatives to boost college aspirations among Maine high-school students such as the Early College Program, which allows high schoolers to take college courses. 

The system also recently began accepting course credit for high schoolers who complete training in durable skills such as financial literacy and entrepreneurship with Jobs for Maine Graduates. System officials said the move aims to help boost Maine’s workforce by setting more kids on degree-seeking pathways. 

“Having these kinds of numbers — it suggests that we are doing the right thing in hitting the pavement,” Malloy said. 

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.