Acadia enrolment down two per cent

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Overall enrolment is down two per cent this fall at Acadia University, but university leaders are optimistic about a nine per cent increase in the freshman class.

University spokesman Scott Roberts noted recently that incoming class sizes had been small for the two previous years.

Recruitment, he said, is being aimed now at the incoming class and team efforts are being made to increase fall events that bring prospective students in. “Traditionally we’ve focused on recruitment in the spring, but we are expanding our market reach,” Roberts said.

The University of Kings College increased its numbers this fall, but “in Nova Scotia, year-over-year, we were second. That’s good because other institutions were down. It’s all over the place.”

Roberts says the mood of people on campus is positive. “People are extremely busy, but they remark about the buzz right now. Faculty are engaged and there’s a lot of activity around recruitment.”

Lower enrolment numbers were predictable due to fewer students graduating from Nova Scotia high schools. “All of us need to make sure we’re making every effort to recruit Nova Scotia students."

The Wolfville institution had a sizable drop in full-time enrolment last year, according to statistics provided by the Association of Atlantic Universities, but numbers were down everywhere.

According to a study released in May by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), university enrolment is projected to grow nationally by between 70,000 to 150,000 full-time students over the next decade despite challenging demographics in some regions of the country.

And while there will be an overall increase in university enrolment in Canada over the next decade, the study also projects the national trend may not be reflected in all areas of the country and not every university will experience the same pressures.