New financial aid program aims to bring more young people to Maine, WLBZ reports
The University of Maine’s new financial aid program, Flagship Match, was mentioned in a WLBZ (Channel 2) report on a University of Maine System Board of Trustees meeting where members discussed ways to bring more young people to Maine. UMaine’s Flagship Match, which is geared toward out-of-state students in New England, is a competitive scholarship program that guarantees academically qualified, first-year students from several states will pay the same tuition and fee rate as their home state’s flagship institution. The program aims to ensure that no student chooses not to attend UMaine because of price, according to the report. Jeffrey Hecker, the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at UMaine, said bringing more students to the state also will have positive long-term effects. “Our data shows that if you’re a student from out of state and you earn your bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine, about 20 percent of those students will stay in Maine for their first job,” Hecker said. “We think that’s great for the state. The state of Maine needs to bring in young people. It’s good for our economy; it’s good for our workforce.” UMaine’s new financial aid initiatives also were cited in a Stateline article published by the Huffington Post titled, “What are states going to do to make higher ed more affordable?”