When it comes to enrollment, it was a good decade to be Worcester Polytechnic Institute and MCPHS University. Both Worcester schools saw enrollment jump during the 2010s, leading the region in growth.
WPI, which has the largest enrollment of any college in Central Massachusetts, saw its student body grow from 4,002 in the fall of 2010 to 5,371 in the fall of 2018, the latest year for which information is available through the Worcester Business Journal’s research department.
That increase of 1,369 was the largest by number of students, but MCPHS, a Boston-based college that started with a small outpost in Worcester, grew far larger as a percentage of its size. MCPHS more than doubled over the decade to 1,490 students.
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In all, college enrollment in Central Massachusetts grew 9% over the decade.
Double-digit growth was also seen at Fitchburg State University (25%), Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton (17%), Worcester State University (14%), Dean College in Franklin (14%), and UMass Medical School in Worcester (11%).
Other schools had slower growth rates: Framingham State University (9%), College of the Holy Cross in Worcester (8%), Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester (6%), Becker College in Worcester (5%), and Clark University (1%).Â
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Four schools experienced enrollment drops: Anna Maria College in Paxton (22%), Nichols College in Dudley (21%), Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner (15%), and Assumption College in Worcester (5%).
Two other schools closed entirely: Atlantic Union College in Lancaster, which stopped offering courses after the spring of 2018 semester, and Salter College, which had an outpost in West Boylston. Salter was ordered to close and pay more than $1.6 million in debt relief to resolve allegations it misled students about student lending, program job placement and graduation rates in an agreement it reached in July with Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
