3 min read January 2023 — The University of Massachusetts is a top public education institution spread over five campuses with an enrollment of over 75,000 students annually. Invest: spoke with University President Marty Meehan about maintaining diversity, working with the Massachusetts business community to provide high-skilled labor, and how to deal with the aftereffects of the pandemic.
What makes UMass an important institution in terms of social, mobility and economic growth in the state?
I attended the University of Massachusetts myself — UMass Lowell. It was an affordable, high-quality education. We play a key role in educating the workforce of Massachusetts, including three times the number of Massachusetts residents as the top eight private universities in the state. UMass has maintained a high level of in-state students compared to other institutions, with three-quarters of the students that attend UMass staying in Massachusetts after graduation. We have grown our research and are now up to $752 million in research expenditures. UMass research results in technologies that have a high likelihood of commercialization, which means they create companies and jobs. That research allows undergraduate students to to engage with high-level graduate students and research faculty, preparing them to contribute to the Massachusetts innovation economy. All four of our undergraduate campuses are now ranked by U.S. News and World Report as national universities in the top tier of those rankings. It is important that if a student comes to UMass, they are going to get as high-quality education as they can get anywhere else. We are committed to excellence in everything we do. Our students are hungry for education and have a great work ethic; they are everything that employers want. We have 74,000 students and we graduate 19,000 students every year.
What is UMass’s differentiating characteristic when prospective students are considering where to attend school?
Our faculty is world-class and the environment is very diverse, so we are able to attract high-quality students from everywhere. Many of our students get experiential learning opportunities such as internships and co-ops. We are pushing that because data shows that these programs increase the retention rate as well as the hiring rate after graduation. Our highly ranked athletics programs at both the Division 1 and 3 levels, as well as our arts and cultural programming make for a great student life environment.
Has there been any significant change in enrollment at UMass over the past year?
UMass has been able to keep enrollment steady. You have to roll up your sleeves and get more aggressive in attracting students and make sure you invest in student life, high-quality residence halls, and support services. Once a student comes to a university, you have to make sure that they stay and graduate. In addition to the looming decline in the number of high school graduates, there are behavioral and mental health issues emerging from the pandemic, so the focus is on providing the programs and support that keep students on track to graduate. When you improve retention rates, it has a positive impact on the university’s bottom line, but it is also critical to strengthening the talent pipeline of the state. We also have excellent campus-based online programs for adult learners, as well as UMass Global, which is a separate, non-profit entity that works with business and industry in designing programs for specific fields.
How do you view Massachusetts’s ability to keep talent from leaving the state and what are the outlying factors contributing to that end?
Housing costs are a major factor in Massachusetts. The state government has been working on a way to find a way to reduce the cost of housing, and it is clearly a priority of the incoming administration of Governor Healey. There are many employers who have openings, so we are listening to what they are telling us about the skills they are looking for. We want to make sure that each of our UMass campuses is preparing those students to prosper in Massachusetts. UMass is the largest supplier of talent for Massachusetts companies. Changing immigration policies and allowing less restrictive visas for foreign students would also be a way of increasing enrollment and supplying Massachusetts with more high-skilled labor.
Are you finding that local businesses are trying to work with UMass in new and more creative ways to bring students into internships?
There are more job vacancies in Massachusetts than qualified people to take those jobs. We need to make sure that a UMass education qualifies students for those job openings. Students also expect to be able to be hired with the education we provide. Getting businesses to offer internships and coops to our students is a core part of what we do. Companies definitely want a more diverse workforce, so having a very diverse university is imperative.
What needs to be done to make sure that the high reputation of Massachusetts universities remains intact over the next decade?
It all starts with investing in quality teaching and research on each of our five campuses. Collaboration between private and public universities is also valuable. While there tends to be a little competition between the universities, it is just as important to strengthen the entire innovation ecosystem in Massachusetts and demonstrate that we are willing to work together.
What are your concerns from a university standpoint about kids entering high school ill-prepared?
A college or university cannot produce educated, skilled people alone. It takes the entire educational system to do it. Among the impacts of the pandemic are learning setbacks for K-12 students. These are reflected in SAT scores and state tests.We need to have programs for first-year students so that they get the extra help that they need, and there will be costs associated with that. It is a challenge that we must meet. We can’t make excuses that we went through a pandemic and students are coming not as prepared as they should be. We need special programming to get them prepared. At the same time, we are also building early college opportunities for high school students to learn what it takes to be successful in college and even earn college credit while in high school.
What are your priorities for 2023?
Every year our priority is to graduate the maximum number of students well-prepared to succeed. As I look to 2023 and beyond, there are a lot of challenges that we will face; economic challenges and declining numbers of high school graduates, but I believe we have a crisis in behavioral health on campuses across America. It is incumbent upon every college and university to find a way to deal with this crisis. It affects students, staff and faculty. We have been through a difficult crisis with the pandemic. We need to make sure that we are providing the services that students, staff and faculty need.
For more information, visit:
