In recent years, the University of New England has emerged as an increasingly national and even global player in a number of important realms. UNE has strengthened its position as one of the select few academic institutions offering a comprehensive health education mission by opening new colleges of pharmacy and dental medicine on our Portland Campus, has developed new online programs that bring the value of a UNE education to students working remotely in all 50 U.S. states and 27 different countries, and has launched a revolutionary new campus in Tangier, Morocco, that allows UNE health sciences students to take organic chemistry and other courses essential to their majors at a crossroads of civilizations in northern Africa.

As UNE makes meaningful inroads into these larger playing fields and gains greater influence, it might be easy for us to lose sight of our roots in southern Maine. But now more than ever we are committed to being a good partner in our local community. We are delighted when we send our aspiring teachers into area schools to gain classroom hours, when we send our neuroscientists into the community to teach young people about the importance of brain injury prevention, and when we welcome to our campuses members of the public for athletic events, lectures, and other activities that make their lives more enjoyable and full.

But most of all we are delighted when we welcome to our campuses in Biddeford and Portland young men and women from the local area that wish to pursue a higher education at UNE. And that is why we have recently doubled down on our commitment to expanding access to higher education for these students through the signing of articulation agreements with a string of local high schools and community colleges. These agreements allow for the easy transfer of high school Advanced Placement course credits toward UNE bachelor’s degree programs, or the transfer of community college course credits toward UNE bachelor’s degree programs. They are designed to increase the pathways to higher education for students, while helping them to contain the costs associated with attaining a four-year degree.

In recent months, UNE has signed articulation agreements of this nature with Southern Maine Community College, Great Bay Community College, Central Maine Community College, Thornton Academy and Biddeford High School. And we are currently in the final stages of discussion with several other educational institutions in the local community. These agreements allow area students to tap into UNE’s expertise in the sciences, marine sciences, allied health fields, and a number of other fields in which UNE specializes, while saving a year’s or even two years’ tuition cost.

The most recent example of such a partnership – an agreement signed between UNE and Central Maine Community College on Nov. 3 – came about as the result of an in-depth process of program development that involved faculty and administrators from both institutions working in concert to create an ideal preparatory program that will serve students at CMCC while preparing them to move on to UNE. CMCC’s new life sciences major provides a broad survey of scientific knowledge focused on life and biological sciences. Upon completing it, students can enter the workforce as scientific technicians or transfer into any one of fifteen different UNE undergraduate programs in the sciences and health professions, including chemistry, neuroscience, biochemistry, biological sciences, marine Science, medical biology, applied exercise science and dental hygiene.

As local men and women take advantage of these expanded pathways to a UNE education in the years ahead, we expect that many of them will enter the workforce here in Maine after graduating. And we expect they will play a role in supplying a variety of fields vital to the state with their next generation of leaders.

We know we can’t solve all of the problems associated with higher education and its well-documented costs, but when we work together we can solve some of them. And when we do, we all benefit – our students, classrooms, and local communities.