Hildreth Institute in MassLive

Will free community college hurt enrollment at 4-year universities? Here’s what we know.

This article originally appeared in MassLive.

In a successful effort to increase community college enrollment, the state offered free tuition to students over 25 last year. Now, the commonwealth hopes to continue that positive trend by providing universal free community college.

But how will this impact four-year universities and colleges?

Some researchers and administrators, such as Bahar Akman Imboden — managing director and founding member of Hildreth Institute, a Boston-based education think tank — are eyeing the new legislation with caution.

Akman Imboden is most worried that small private four-year colleges might see further enrollment declines because they lack the financial aid that state and community colleges could provide.

Meanwhile, others, such as Nate Mackinnon — executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges — point to the potential benefits for state and private four-year universities and colleges.

The free community college program could be a “game changer” that helps the commonwealth’s workforce and economy and increases enrollment at private and state institutions by increasing the number of transfer applicants, he said.

Free community college, Mackinnon said, is the “biggest transformational educational policy that’s happened in Massachusetts in a couple generations.”

“We drew a line in the sand as a state several generations ago that 12th grade would be where free education stops. And up until this point, there’s been no conversation about whether or not that’s the right line,” Mackinnon said.

The universal free community college program, also known as MassEducate, would allow any state resident to go to community college for free as part of a $58 billion compromise budget. Lawmakers approved the bill on Friday and sent it to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk for her signature.

The compromise budget plan also includes stipends for books and supplies for qualifying students, ranging from $1,200 to $2,400, based on income. Full-time tuition and fees at Massachusetts community colleges are about $6,600 to $7,500 for the 2024 academic year.

It also expands scholarship aid by more than $177 million, State House News Service reported.

MassEducate will cost $117.5 million a year and is funded by the state’s “Millionaire’s Tax,” a special levy on anyone making $1 million a year or more.

The program has the potential to increase enrollment at community colleges, similar to the Healey-Driscoll administration’s approval last year of a free community college program for residents aged 25 years or older who did not already have a college degree.

The program, also known as MassReconnect, drew 8,411 students in its first year, driving an 8% overall enrollment increase across the state’s community colleges, the administration said.

An impact on state institution enrollment?
Akman Imboden said Massachusetts is unique in that it already has programs in place to help cover the cost of tuition and fees of public institutions in Massachusetts for Pell-eligible students through MassGrant Plus Expansion.

Gov. Maura Healey announced the expansion of the program in November 2023. It also offers a $1,200 stipend for books and supplies but doesn’t cover room and board.

Akman Imboden said the issue is that the program has been under-publicized and not enough students know about the opportunity.

However, with increased advertisement, she said state universities and colleges could have little to no enrollment impact from the free community college program.

“If we do a good job at marketing MassEducate along with MassGrant Plus Expansion and can equally elevate these programs, I don’t think that the public four-year institutions will see a large change in their enrollment,” she said.

Since community college became free in Massachusetts last year for residents 25 years and older, data doesn’t show any alarming enrollment declines at four-year state institutions.

Undergraduate enrollment at the nine state universities was down by 192 students, or 0.6%, in fall 2023, after five years of more significant declines, according to the Healey administration. Meanwhile, new first-time student enrollment in 2023 jumped by 3.5% at the state universities.

At the state’s four UMass campuses, undergraduate enrollment in fall 2023 was down by 1% from the prior fall, or 538 students, mainly at the UMass Amherst flagship campus.

UMass Boston, UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth saw increases in either overall undergraduate enrollment or new first-time undergraduate enrollment or both, according to the Healey administration.

What about private institutions?
While Akman Imboden isn’t as worried about state institutions because of MassGrant Plus, she said she is concerned about how free community college could impact four-year private institutions.

She pointed to Oregon, where free community college, according to a 2019 study, helped increase enrollment at two-year colleges by around 5%.

However, in the first year of implementation, the increase was attributed to students shifting away from four-year institutions, the study said.

In Tennessee, college enrollment also increased after the implementation of a free community college program. However, the college enrollment rate has decreased since, according to the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.

As community college enrollment has been increasing in Massachusetts, private institutions such as Hampshire College, Brandeis University and Emerson College are facing declines. The institutions announced financial issues stemming from low enrollment — resulting in cuts and layoffs.

Some well-endowed private institutions could attract students by boosting their financial aid packages in reaction to MassEducate, Akman Imboden said, but other, less-endowed institutions may not be able to stay afloat in the competitive landscape.

She doesn’t know how widespread the issue could be, especially since students who might apply to free community college could be different than students applying to small private colleges.

Mackinnon doesn’t think making community college free would take students away from private and state institutions.

“We aren’t talking about how we divvy up the pie of people going into higher education. We’re talking about how we make the pie astronomically bigger,” Mackinnon said.

Rob McCarron, president and CEO of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, agreed.

He sees the potential benefits to the private institutional ecosystem, including increasing diversity at private institutions through the potential increase in transfers. This is especially important to consider when navigating the affirmative action Supreme Court decision, he said.

For students in Massachusetts interested in transferring from a community college to a private institution, MassTransfer Guarantee is a partnership agreement between community colleges and private institutions that guarantees the transfer of associate degree credits.

McCarron pointed to the New England Board of Higher Education’s second annual report on the New England Transfer Guarantee, which found that 84% of students identified as a first-generation college student and 40% of Massachusetts students identified as Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

“These are one of the ways that institutions can still think about creating that diverse student body,” McCarron said.

While the state is moving in the right direction with free community college, he said it should also focus on providing more money to students who might want to attend private colleges instead of community colleges or state institutions.

“We’re hopeful that the state will now think, okay, we’ve done free community college and that’s going to be one investment, but we also need to think about how we’re investing in those students that find their best fit at a private institution,” he said.

Those students should be given the support they deserve, he said.

An opportunity to transfer?
State Sen. Joanne M. Comerford, D-Hampshire/Franklin/Worcester, said free community college is a “lift all boats proposal” whereby four-year institutions may benefit from students transferring from community colleges.

Comerford, chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, said legislators have taken “great pains” to “strengthen the pipeline between community colleges and four years.”

She pointed to MassTransfer where students can begin at community college and are guaranteed their credits for work completed will transfer to a state university or UMass campus and count toward a bachelor’s degree.

“There’s going to be a well-lit path, a bright line that can take you from community college to one of the four-year colleges and universities in the commonwealth,” Comerford said.

McCarron said that over a third of the 59 private colleges and universities he works with have partnerships like MassTransfer Guarantee with community colleges.

He foresees these partnerships strengthening as more students go to community college for free and have the ability to transfer into private institutions.
Lynn Pasquerella, former president of Mount Holyoke College from 2010 to 2016 and current president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said that while she believes free community college could benefit both state and private institutions through transfer students, she said there needs to be more seamless transitions for students.

Pasquerella, who herself went to a community college before transferring to Mount Holyoke, said she lost 12 of her credits when she transferred. She said this can happen especially between institutions that don’t have articulation agreements.

During her time as president of Mount Holyoke College, she said she worked with Greenfield Community College and Holyoke Community College to create pathways for students to begin at community college and transition to the private institution.

While as a student she took courses over the summer to make up lost credits, she said some students wouldn’t be able to afford to make up the 12 credits.

One standard class at Mount Holyoke amounts to four credits. Pasquerella had to make up three classes.

Tuition for a full-time student at Mount Holyoke was $63,904 or $1,997 per credit between 2023-2024, according to Mount Holyoke’s website.

“That can push them over the edge in terms of whether or not they’re going to complete their college degree,” Pasquerella said.

It can also make individuals feel like they don’t belong in college or that the college doesn’t actually want them, she said.

“We need to pay attention to those kinds of hidden barriers for students who are poor,” Pasquerella said.