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Why do Maine residents leave the state after graduation?
A University of Maine professor and a committee organized by President Peter S. Hoff are attempting to answer that question in separate studies this semester.
“I think it’s the single most important economic issue in this state,” Philip Trostel, a professor in the department of economics, said. Trostel has been researching the topic for more than a year.
Of students who attended college in the same state in which they went to high school, 70 percent stay in the state afterwards, according to Trostel.
Considering that most Maine colleges educate out-of-state students, this does not paint a great picture for the state, Trostel said.
Trostel was amazed by the findings from his extensive report on the issue, titled “Workforce Development in Maine: Held Back by the Lack of Higher Education.”
“I was quite surprised to find how many high school students are leaving their state to go to college,” Trostel said.
Thirty-eight of 50 states in the country receive more students at their colleges than they send out. UMaine is not one of those 38 states that manages to keep their state students, Trostel said.
“Maine is the fourth-worst with sending out students. It’s the biggest loser in percentage terms,” he said.
Other states with the same problem include Connecticut, New Jersey and Alaska.
So why is this such a crisis in Maine?
Trostel has no precise answers or definite solutions.
“We don’t really have enough data,” he said. “But one very likely culprit is higher tuition in Maine.”
Maine has the fourth-highest tuition in the country. Over the six academic years from 1994 to 2000, in-state tuition and fees in Maine’s public universities and colleges are 50 percent higher than the national average, and more than 10 percent higher than the New England average, Trostel said in his report.
“It’s what you’re paying in relation to what you’re getting,” Trostel said.
The fact that students are leaving their home states for other means of higher education indicates students feel they can get a better deal elsewhere, Trostel said.
“The main issue is not affordability, but competitiveness, and what I’ve learned is we’re losing,” he said. “Other states are doing more than Maine is doing.”
A committee has formed to investigate the issue, at the request of President Peter S. Hoff.
It is an informal committee headed by Harlan Onsrud, professor of spatial information science and engineering, Hoff said.
“They are looking at UMaine’s curriculum to make sure it addresses the needs of Maine employers,” Hoff said.
The president has asked Onsrud and others to look at this issue because it was one of seven priorities listed in his State of the University speech, he said.
Hoff said this topic relates to the two fundamental goals he hopes the university can accomplish: offering students a world-class education and “creating the kind of state where a person with that kind of education can find a fulfilling career and lifestyle,” Hoff said.
Part of the reason Maine high school students attend out-of-state colleges is because of the lack of prosperity and culture in the state of Maine. There are not enough higher-paying, well-established positions in Maine, causing a problem for not only colleges, but also the state’s economy, Trostel said.
Often graduates remain in the state where they attended college because job connections are much stronger in that state.
“The problem is that many of Maine’s young with high aspirations are driven out of the state by our lack of commitment to providing them with the skills needed to compete in a modern world,” Trostel said in his report.
About two-thirds of UMaine’s graduates find jobs in Maine. “Many more could, but choose to go elsewhere for higher pay or a different lifestyle or just a change of scenery,” Hoff said.
The state remains at risk of losing more high school graduates each year to out-of-state institutions, as well as losing Maine graduates.
Trostel is hopeful, yet wary about how this situation will end.
“The truly troubling part of this conclusion is that, at present, there is little sign that this trend is changing,” he said.
“The economic picture for graduates is not impossible. It’s just that it could be better,” Hoff said.
