Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal • March 28, 2016 www.wbjournal.com In fight for students, colleges showcase affordability cants enrolled in 2013, down from 49 percent in 2002. To market affordable degrees, Massachusetts community colleges – including Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester and Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner – have partnered with public and private higher education institu- tions to offer four-year degrees at a fixed cost to full-time, non-residential students. Other schools – like Nichols, Assumption College and all state uni- versities – froze tuition to show a com- mittment to affordable education. QCC and MWCC have partnered with Worcester State and Fitchburg State universities to offer a $30K Commitment, where students can earn an associate's degree at either commu- nity college and then transfer to one of the two four-year schools to complete their bachelor's degree. "This program is nothing super revo- lutionary. Students could have gone to Quinsig and come to Worcester State. They could have done it all for less than $30,000. But by doing this, sort of pack- aging it this way, we think we're making students more aware of the opportunity that already existed, and we're very very clearly delineating what that path is," said Ryan Forsythe, WSU vice president of enrollment management. "We're helping them realize it's a path that they can take." Capping costs What is revolutionary, Forsythe said, is that students who enter the $30K Commitment won't be susceptible to hikes in tuition or fees. Plus, the pro- gram doesn't take into account financial aid, so many students could end up pay- ing a lot less. At Worcester State, about 65 percent of students receive financial aid, Forsythe said. "Capping students' cost is a major component of the $30K Commitment, as it will shelter students with locked-in prices regardless of any proposed chang- es in tuition or fees during their studies," said Matthew J. Bruun, FSU director of public affairs. "The program also high- lights institutional commitment to stu- dent success, as it aligns high-demand courses of study at the community col- lege and university levels." The increased scrutiny on the higher education system in the U.S. came about because federal regulators in Congress, the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice have all started to focus in on the relationship between undergraduate success, gainful employ- ment, and net student and family debt burden, said James E. Samels, president and CEO of the Framingham higher education consulting firm the Education Alliance. "Higher education is to 2016 what health care was to 2015," he said. "There is a rising expectation in the public that higher education, if not free, should be subsidized to make it an affordable attainment." As of March 2015, total student loan debt nationwide was $1.27 trillion, whereas in 2006, it was just under $500 million, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Tuition freezes Tuition has been frozen at state schools and community colleges for years, but that is really not an indicator of commitment to affordability, as the schools hike their significant fees every companies are focusing on new markets, specialty products and workforce train- ing to ensure continued growth for years to come. Others, however, are still employing the traditional, labor-intensive practices for production. "You have companies like [Spencer- based] FLEXcon, which are highly advanced … and then you have smaller machine shops, where they may be still using some of the older technology that is operative and more labor intensive," said John Killam, center director at the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP). "There's more of a blend of advanced and traditional manufacturing." Central Mass. cornerstone Although manufacturing employ- ment in Massachusetts declined from 407,805 in 2001 to 248,253 in 2012 steadily – a 39-percent decrease – it is still one of the state's major economic drivers, according to a May 2015 study from the MIT Industrial Performance Center. This is due to support for the state's advanced manufacturing fields, like bio- pharmaceuticals, aerospace, defense, computers and medical devices. "What we're finding that [customers are] giving us work that is at higher profit margins, lower quantities. We've gone from what in the industry you call a 'low mix, high volume' to 'high mix, low volume,'" said Liora Stone, presi- dent of Precision Engineering in Uxbridge. "It might be more complicat- ed work, or it might be work that the customer wants to keep it closer to where they are." To find the best sources of revenue, Precision Engineering shifted its cus- tomer base past mostly the construc- tion industry and into transportation, aerospace, defense and to a smaller extent, medical devices. Advanced manufacturing is the region's largest and highest-paying sub- sector, accounting for 9 percent of the job base in Central Massachusetts – the highest share of anywhere across Massachusetts, according to a July 2014 study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The 27,803 people employed in the Central Massachusetts advanced manu- facturing industry in 2012 represented 14 percent of all advanced manufactur- ing jobs in the state, according to UMass. They were employed by 760 compa- nies and earned, on average, $75,281 per year. Shifting needs Despite its outsized influence on the region, all subsectors under the advanced manufacturing umbrella experienced losses between 2001 and 2012, accord- ing to UMass. Most job losses were in computers and electronics and chemicals and plas- tics sectors. Despite offshoring and job losses, one of the strengths of manufacturing in Massachusetts is the ability of those in the industry to innovate, and to shift business practices more towards what the needs of the market are, said Brian Gilmore, spokesman for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "They have niches that are very nar- ADVANCE & SURVIVE >> Continued from Page 1 >> Continued from Page 1 Name of partnership: $30K Commitment Partnered schools: Mount Wachusett Community College, Quinsigamond Community College, Springfield Technical Community College*, Greenfield Community College*, Fitchburg State University and Worcester State University Total cost: $30,000, guaranteed for four years Degrees offered: Biology, chemistry, biotechnology, business administration, computer science, criminal justice, early childhood education and elementary education Name of partnership: FSU@MassBay Partnered schools: Framingham State University and MassBay Community College Total cost: $28,000, though it is susceptible to fee/tuition changes� Degrees offered: Liberal arts, business Name of partnership: Higher Education and Active Responsiveness through Transfer (H�E�A�R�T�) Initiative Partnered schools: Quinsigamond and Anna Maria College Total cost: $40,000, guaranteed for four years Degrees offered: Fire science/emergency management, human services, social work and criminal justice Central Mass colleges offering "two-plus-two" degree agreements *For transfer into Worcester State only Source: Individual schools Roger Harpin working on a Kine-Spin centrifrugal cleaning machine at Worcester metal forming manufacturer Kinefac Corp., which focuses on research and development. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y

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