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NMC enrollment drops slightly
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Posted on Feb 01 2005
Northern Marianas College posted a slight drop in enrollment this spring semester, owing to the college’s Pell Grant reimbursement status and the academic suspension of a number of students.
A total of 1,165 students registered this semester, according to NMC financial aid director Ray Basa. This represents a decrease of 10 percent from the total enrolment in Spring 2003 and a decline of 4 percent from Spring 2004.
Of the total enrollees, 1004 have enlisted to attend classes on Saipan, 98 on Tinian, and 63 on Rota.
Basa attributed the decline in enrollment to a variety of factors.
He said the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to place NMC on Pell reimbursement status, which resulted in delays in the disbursement of scholarship awards, apparently caused some students financial difficulty.
About 60 students are only now getting reimbursed for their school year 2003-2004 tuition and fees.
Basa said a number of students have also been suspended after they failed to meet the required cumulative grade point average of 2.0.
Another factor, Basa added, is the impact of the renegotiation of the United States’ pacts with the freely associated states, which rendered Micronesian students ineligible for certain federal scholarship programs and other student loan programs.
“All they have left is the Pell Grant and it’s not enough to cover all of the school fees. They have to find other sources of funding,” he said.
Lastly, Basa admitted that the problem could also lie with NMC’s own recruitment strategy. “Maybe we just have to beef our own recruitment efforts and be more aggressive. You’ve got to spend before you earn. Maybe we should start giving students scholarships,” he said.
