New Hildreth Institute Report Highlights Urgent Need to Move from Access to Completion as Enrollment Surges 38.5% at Massachusetts Community Colleges
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BOSTON, MA (October 2025) — A new report from the Hildreth Institute, Meeting the Moment with SUCCESS, comes at a pivotal moment for public higher education in Massachusetts.
According to newly released data from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, total community college enrollment climbed to 86,321 students in fall 2024—a 38.5% increase since fall 2022, representing 24,000 additional students. This remarkable growth follows the introduction of the state’s tuition-free college programs, MassReconnect (Fall 2023) and MassEducate (Fall 2024). Enrollment has now returned to pre-pandemic levels, marking a major milestone for access made possible by legislative leadership, the Healey-Driscoll Administration, and the new Fair Share Amendment, which created the revenue source to fund these initiatives.
Yet, while access has expanded dramatically, the new data reveal that student success outcomes remain stubbornly low, and equity gaps persist.
The six-year “Completion Anywhere” rate stands at 35.2% for students who began in Fall 2018, about 20% lower than the national average which is at 43.8%.
Completion rates for Black (29.4%) and Latino (26.8%) students remain significantly below both the state average and the rate for White students (41.4%), with little progress in closing these gaps over recent years.
Fall-to-fall persistence has stagnated around 60%, with only modest gains in on-time credit completion during the first year.
Community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate share of students facing academic, financial, and personal barriers, operate with fewer resources than four-year institutions. These low completion rates often reflect systemic underfunding, not student ability, underscoring the need for greater investment in comprehensive student supports.
“These outcomes are an alarm bell,” said Dr. Bahar Akman Imboden, Managing Director of the Hildreth Institute and author of the report. “ State leaders have taken bold steps to open the doors of opportunity. The challenge now is ensuring those doors lead to completion through the expansion of proven student-success supports.”
The report focuses on the state’s SUCCESS Program (Supporting Urgent Community College Equity through Student Services), a statewide model that provides academic advising, mentoring, tutoring, and career guidance that support underserved and underrepresented community college students persist, achieve, and graduate. Early results are promising:
SUCCESS participants persist at roughly 60% after three years, compared to 52% for similar peers.
Among part-time students, persistence rates are 13 percentage points higher than their peers.
However, with a current $14 million budget, SUCCESS reaches only about 8% of Massachusetts community college students; a proportion that will decline as enrollment is expanding and demand for advising, mentoring, and wraparound supports is higher than ever.
The report outlines two urgent imperatives:
Scale up SUCCESS student supports to ensure access gains translate into completion gains.
Invest in institutional capacity; including advising staff, basic-needs resources, and instructional infrastructure, to sustain this growth equitably.
Key Recommendations
Integrate supports systems. Following evidence-based high-impact initiatives, bundle SUCCESS advising and coaching with financial aid and embed wraparound supports to address students’ academic, financial, and personal needs holistically.
Adopt a triage advising model that delivers baseline support for all students and intensive help for those most at risk.
Phase in a statewide expansion of SUCCESS funded at $2,500–$2,800 per student, the level needed to provide proactive, holistic supports.
“Access without support will fail of its own weight,” Akman Imboden added. “Massachusetts has the policy vision and the data, now it needs the investment to ensure every student who starts college has the resources to finish.”
To further discuss the findings of this report and explore how Massachusetts can move from access to completion, you are invited to a legislative briefing co-hosted by the Hildreth Institute and EdTrust–MA, where the report will be presented and these issues will be discussed with state leaders, education experts, and community college stakeholders.
Legislative Briefing Details
Event: From Access to Completion: Scaling Higher Ed SUCCESS Programs in Massachusetts
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM ET
Location: Massachusetts State House, Room 428
Hosted by: Hildreth Institute and EdTrust–MA
Sponsored by: Senator Jo Comerford and Representative Dave Rogers
Speakers: Dr. Noe Ortega, Commissioner of Higher Education, along with college leaders, students, and policymakers
Register here
