QCC freshman enrollment spikes 9%, reflecting community colleges’ pandemic resilience

Photo | Courtesy of Quinsigamond Community College Students gather at Quinsigamond Community College over the summer.

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By Katherine Hamilton

Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester is the only community college in the state whose freshman enrollment rate in 2021 did not fall from 2019. It had a 0% change over the two years impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the 2021 early enrollment report released by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

From 2020 to 2021, QCC had a 9% increase in freshman enrollment, the fourth greatest increase of the Massachusetts’ community colleges after Bunker Hill’s 46% increase, Berkshire’s 11% jump, and Massasoit’s 10% growth.

The Worcester college had the third highest total enrollment at 6,900, the same as last year’s total enrollment and a 5% decrease from 2019. Since the coronavirus pandemic struck, QCC has seen the third smallest drop in total enrollment among the 15 community colleges.

Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner struggled to bounce back from the pandemic a bit more than QCC, with a 14% decline in total enrollment over the past two years. It ranked at 11 out of the 15 colleges with 3,160 enrolled students and 520 freshmen this fall. This is a 5% increase in freshmen from last year.

Of state colleges excluding the UMass system, Worcester State University, Fitchburg State University, and Framingham State University landed in the middle of the freshman enrollment ranking at fourth, fifth, and sixth place respectively. Worcester State had 773 newly enrolled first-years, Fitchburg had 585, and Framingham 584, with Bridgewater State University topping the list at 1,382.

Compared with 2020, Worcester State saw a 4% decrease in freshman enrollment this year. Framingham State had a 5% decrease and Fitchburg an 11% dip.

Worcester State had the third highest total enrollment of the state universities, excluding UMass, with 4,600 enrolled, a 6% decrease from last year. Fitchburg and Framingham State Universities each had just over 3,000 enrolled, which marks a 12% dip from last year for both schools.

As a whole, the Massachusetts public higher education system is in its eighth consecutive year of total undergraduate enrollment decline, with a particularly sharp drop in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Last fall, freshman enrollment took a record-breaking 16.2% decrease, which levelled out this year, still a total of 5,000 fewer students than pre-pandemic figures.

Community colleges have seen the sharpest decline from 22,200 freshmen enrolled in 2009 to 11,876 this year, but they have had a stronger comeback from the pandemic. They bounced from a 24% decrease in enrollment in fall 2020 to an 8% increase this year.

Meanwhile, state universities are not recovering from the pandemic as quickly, as they continued an overall 3% decrease from last year.