The Bond Buyer interviews Hecker about Flagship Match program
The Bond Buyer spoke with Jeffrey Hecker, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maine, for an article about the university’s Flagship Match program. The out-of-state tuition discount program began in 2016 with the goal of turning around declining revenue and enrollment, the article states. “It’s a win for the state and a win for the university. It has been very successful in bringing out-of-state students to the University of Maine,” Hecker said. Academically qualified students from selected states pay the same tuition and fee rate as their home state’s flagship institution. Hecker noted the program increased UMaine’s number of first-year students from Massachusetts by 75 percent when it was implemented in the fall 2016 semester. Since then, the total out-of-state, first-year enrollment percentage has risen from 35 percent to 46 percent. Maine’s population is the oldest in the United States, which has resulted in workforce shortages for certain industries, the article states. “The reality is that with the demographics there are fewer and fewer high school graduates. Without something dramatic changing there will be fewer and fewer 18- to 24-year-olds and that is not good for the University of Maine or the state,” said Hecker. He and other university officials hope the Flagship Match program will encourage out-of-state students to stay in Maine after graduation, The Bond Buyer reported.