Hildreth Institute in MassLive

Free tuition brings more students to Massachusetts colleges, but completion gaps persist

This article originally appeared in MassLive, written by Juliet Schulman-Hall.

In nearly every community college class Nicholas Vintzileos attended, at least one student would vanish — sometimes for a day, sometimes for good.

Vintzileos, who graduated from Northern Essex Community College in December, understood the challenges his fellow students were up against. He dropped out of Massasoit Community College in 2014, having previously transferred from Newbury College, which closed in 2019.

At the time, he didn’t feel supported by college in figuring out his next steps or passions and instead opted to work at his family’s restaurant.

Vintzileos’ story isn’t unique. Every year, a large number of students don’t complete their degrees at Massachusetts public colleges and universities. And the trend has largely stayed the same — or worsened — since 2016.

Community colleges have consistently had the lowest completion rates among Massachusetts public higher education institutions, with around 34% of students completing their degrees over six years as of 2025. Nationally, that is about the sixth-lowest percentage, while other states such as South Dakota and Iowa are outpacing the commonwealth, according to National Student Clearinghouse data.

Meanwhile, completion rates at state universities have declined to 66%, while at the University of Massachusetts campuses, they have remained steady at around 77%.

These low completion rates persist even as the commonwealth experiences a surge in access to public higher education, with free community college enrollment skyrocketing by over 40% from 2022 to 2025. Free tuition initiatives at state universities and the UMass system have also been created, helping to bring more students through the door.

While the pandemic partly explains these low completion rates, policy experts, advocates and government officials are signaling concern about the trend.

The state has begun funding programs aimed at improving completion rates. But advocates say the investment falls far short of what is needed.

“We are concerned, have been concerned,” Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega said in an interview. “And are really trying to work to make sure that we address it.”

New initiatives, like tuition-free community college or early college, need to be invested in not only to bring students in the door but to keep them there, he said.

A decade after leaving higher education, the availability of free community college — along with the birth of his child — motivated Vintzileos, 32, to return to school. He was elected student body president and has since transferred to the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is pursuing his degree part-time while working as operations manager at Avis at Boston Logan International Airport.

Going back to community college was the “best decision of my life,” he said. “The whole hiatus between Massasoit and Northern Essex, that was a big wake-up call. I feel like it was hanging over my head.”

What is happening to Mass. higher ed?

While Massachusetts took first place last year in the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress — or the Nation’s Report Card — the state has struggled to return to pre-pandemic performance levels among students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

At the same time, federal funding to education has been in flux as the Trump administration has revoked funding for scientific research, questioned the importance or role of attending higher education and carried out immigration enforcement in communities, which is affecting enrollment at K-12 schools.

The pandemic heightened educational inequities already present, contributing to a learning loss and a worsening of mental health and social issues, said Vincent Pedone, executive director of the Massachusetts State Universities Council of Presidents. That, in turn, goes hand in hand with completion rates.

“The learning loss that occurred during a pandemic is still being assessed, but we see it in real time,” Pedone said. “There are multilayers of things that are making this even more challenging for higher education leaders to start moving the needle.”

Completion was an issue in public higher education before the pandemic. Pedone attributes this, in part, to welcoming students who might not otherwise have attended higher education, he said.

“The worst thing in the world that we can do as higher education institutions is invite somebody to come to our school, invest their hard-earned resources in their education and then not graduate them,” Pedone said.

Lane Glenn, the president of Northern Essex Community College, also emphasized that community colleges’ open-admissions policies allow anyone to attend, which is one reason why their completion rates have never been impressive.

Community college students are more likely to enroll students who are English language learners, have developmental disabilities or are juggling the cost of child care and working a full-time job, he said. They are often dealing with food insecurity and the rising costs of housing and other basic needs.

At the same time, community colleges are the lowest-funded sector in the educational system, Glenn said.

While community colleges have largely removed the financial barriers to attending, Glenn said more funding is needed to make learners who are less likely to prioritize their education feel like they have the support they need.

What is being done in Mass. — and needs to change?

The commonwealth has invested in new wraparound supports for students, which are proving effective at keeping them in college.

Most recently, the state gave $14 million to the Community College SUCCESS Fund, a program launched in 2021 that offers peer support, academic skills workshops, targeted advising and food insecurity interventions.

Another $14 million was given to the state universities to begin the same programming on their campuses in fiscal year 2025, and $10 million to UMass undergraduate campuses for the first time.

That includes institutions such as Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, Salem, Westfield and Worcester State universities. The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Massachusetts Maritime Academy are also considered state universities.

Students in the SUCCESS program continued their education at a rate of 69%, compared with 57% among those not enrolled in the program from fall 2024 to fall 2025, said Nate Mackinnon, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges.

Based on these early results, the association is requesting that the community colleges receive double the investment from the state, at $28 million.

He said the current funding is a “drop in the bucket” for the number of students who could be served, with only 8% of students participating. It is a “recipe for disaster” given the increasing enrollment.

“As we look at free community college as our access strategy, success is our completion strategy, and the two have to go hand in hand,” Mackinnon said. “We’re just not serving nearly the number of students we need to be with the services we provide through SUCCESS.”

Bahar Akman Imboden, managing director and founding member of the Hildreth Institute, a Boston-based education think tank, agreed that the investment in SUCCESS isn’t enough.

The state hasn’t matched its investment to the pace of enrollment increases, creating a “real risk” of further declines in completion rates.

“We are moving in the wrong direction,“ Akman Imboden said. “The increase in enrollment has led to the dilution of institutional resources.”

She said there has been a 27% drop in per-student funding over two years at Massachusetts community colleges, according to the institute’s latest report.

Community colleges receive roughly half as much operational funding per student as state universities — and even less compared to UMass campuses, Akman Imboden said.

Ortega said the state has to do more, but also knows that these kinds of interventions require significant financial investments to continue.

Looking for new ways to support students before they’ve even entered college will be another crucial tactic, he said.

One way is through early college, which allows students to graduate high school with college credits, he said. This helps to provide a more affordable path to a degree.

Gov. Maura Healey announced in January that she plans to grow the state’s early college program by 100,000 students within 10 years. That would be a big jump from the current 10,000 students in the program.

Black and Brown communities are falling behind

The issue of completion rates is starkly seen in Black and brown communities.

Mackinnon attributed some of the disparity to those communities being hit hardest by the pandemic, which made other priorities — such as work — more pressing.

UMass campuses have seen a 5.4% improvement in completion rates for white students and 6.1% improvement for Asian students from 2016 to 2025.

Meanwhile, completion rates for Black students improved by 1.3% and for Hispanic students by 1.1%. Now there is an 18% achievement gap between white and Black students at UMass.

Meanwhile, at state universities, Black student completion rates have declined by around 10% from 2016 to 2025, and Hispanic student numbers have also declined by about 7%. Other demographic groups have also seen a downward trend during this period, with the exception of Asian students.

Community colleges have experienced less drastic drops in Black student completion rates. Still, the numbers remained about 13.5 to 15% higher for white students in 2025.

American Indian or Alaska Native student completion rates have declined by 10% from 2016 to 2025, falling to 19.2% in 2025.

“As a state that values education and the success of education, we’re also asking the question, how can we be the leaders for all?” Ortega asked.

He said addressing equity gaps are a “guiding principle around how we want to approach addressing the completion challenge.”

Isabella Gitana, 50, a queer and Indigenous student at Holyoke Community College who uses they/she pronouns, returned to pursue a post-secondary education so they could feel heard and lend their voice to their community.

“I feel like, honestly, as a queer and Indigenous and working class woman, that education is not abstract,” said Gitana. And it feels like for us, it is tied to access, and it’s tied to voice and who gets to be heard. And I felt like that was important enough for me to go to school and finish what I started, because it feels like it’s not just for me, that it’s also for my community.”

Gitana took some classes remotely at the college in 2016, but due to financial burdens and family issues, she stopped.

Education has been something they were told they didn’t need and weren’t smart enough for. She also didn’t feel supported by her college to continue, and was unsure what resources might be available.

“Being an online student before, I really didn’t see a lot of resources that I’m taking advantage of now,” Gitana said. “I still find myself talking to other students and they don’t know that certain resources actually exist.”

However, after building a successful business, running it for the past 22 years, and raising their child alone, they said it was time for them to return to earn a degree. Free community college helped them achieve that.

Now, Gitana said they are transferring to a four-year college and plans to earn their master’s degree. She has already been accepted to Mount Holyoke College and the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“There’s not as many Indigenous folks that actually have a bachelor’s degree,” Gitana said.