GORHAM — The University of Southern Maine has scratched plans for a co-educational, international high school on the campus here.

The plan had been to attract juniors and seniors worldwide in a feeder effort to bolster the university’s sagging enrollment and finances. The University of Maine Board of Trustees last year approved plans for The International Academy that would have opened in fall 2018.

But the University is no longer accepting applications for the high school, according to its website.

“While I am disappointed that what I continue to believe is a compelling idea did not generate the level of interest we had hoped for,” University President Glenn Cummnings said in a recent statement to the American Journal, “the good news for USM is that with our enrollment growth and healthy budget outlook there is less urgency to find additional revenue streams like TIA.”

International students would have been housed in Anderson Hall and an initial goal was to attract about 50 students.The university announced last year that tuition plus room and board for international high school students had been tentatively set at $36,500.

Robert Stein, university director of public affairs, said the interest of international students in attending schools in the United States has recently declined.

“This may be in part due to the national rhetoric and climate on immigration,” Stein said. “There also seems to be a drop in interest from Chinese families due to changing economic conditions there.”

Stein said China has historically been a major pipeline of students to the United States and The International Academy had counted on attracting Chinese students.

A few years ago, the university experienced financial woes as enrollment had spiraled down from a height of about 11,000.

In the fall of 2016, the university had 7,855 students and the enrollment figure for this school year will be available by mid-October.

Cummings began as university president in the summer of 2015 and the university said enrollment is rebounding.

Stein said the enrollment growth has created  “a housing squeeze” on its Gorham campus. Two eight-story dorms on the campus here are vacant and have been slated for demolition, but Stein said there’s no timetable for razing.

“When the TIA was conceived two years ago, there was sufficient available housing in our residential halls to dedicate space to TIA students,” Stein said.

The International Academy had been designed to generate revenue, but “USM’s budget today is significantly healthier and there is no longer a strong need to generate such additional revenue streams,” Stein said.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or [email protected]