Full Time Enrollment and Headcount Data

Dear Ms. Bowers,

Thank you for your recent public records request sent to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, in which you requested the following information:

"Yearly data full time enrollment data for all public higher education institutions in Massachusetts for all academic years from AY 2000-2001 to AY 2010-2011.

Yearly full time enrollment data for UMass-Amherst for all academic years from AY 2011-2012 to AY 2014-2015.

Yearly unduplicated headcount data for all public higher education institutions in massachusetts for all academic years from AY 2000-2001 to AY 2010-2011.

Yearly unduplicated headcount data for UMass-Amherst for all academic years from AY 2011-2012 to AY 2014-2015."

My apologies for the delay in my response; our department, like much of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' government, is still working primarily remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and because these requests were sent via U.S. Mail as opposed to email, they were not received until recently. In the future, please submit public records requests to the Department of Higher Education using either the form on our website<https://www.mass.edu/about/publicrecords.asp> or via email to DHE.RAO@dhe.mass.edu.

I have consulted with our institutional research department and have some additional information/questions for you about your request. The DHE only started collecting annual data in FY2003, and only for the State Universities and Community Colleges, so we would not have data from 2000-01 or 2001-02. We also only collect aggregate total HCT and FTE from the UMass campuses. You can reach out directly to the community college, state university, and UMass campuses to get additional data points and/or years if what we provide is insufficient.

Also, I need to know how you would want to determine full-time. Students can be full-time in the Fall and not in Spring and vice versa. Are you interested in full time in both Fall and Spring? Also, do you need only undergraduate students or graduate students too?

Please advise as to the above questions and we will provide your requested data as quickly as possible.

Thank you, and again, my sincere apologies for the delay in our response.
Best,
Ashley

Ashley H. Wisneski
Deputy General Counsel
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 994-6952

Dear Ms. Bowers,

I write to follow up on the below email in which I asked you to clarify your public records request so we can provide you with the data that you are seeking. I have not yet received a response, and we do not feel that we can respond without more information from you.

If we do not receive a response with more specifics about your request within 10 business days, we will be closing your request.

Thank you,
Ashley

Ashley H. Wisneski
Deputy General Counsel
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 994-6952

Dear Ms. Bowers,

Having not received a response to my below emails asking for additional detail about the data that you have requested from the MA DHE, I will be closing your public records request.

You are welcome to submit your request again; I would just ask that you do so using our online form<https://www.mass.edu/about/publicrecords.asp> or by emailing DHE.RAO@dhe.mass.edu<mailto:DHE.RAO@dhe.mass.edu> and that you provide the additional detail that we will need to process your request.
Best,
Ashley

Ashley H. Wisneski
Deputy General Counsel
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 994-6952