Acadia enrollment plummets nearly 10 per cent

By Wendy Elliott

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com

Enrollment at beleaguered Acadia University dropped by 9.7 per cent this fall – to below 3,000 full time students, according to figures released last week by the Association of Atlantic Universities.

Preliminary numbers indicate that there are 334 fewer students on the Wolfville campus, with numbers currently standing at 2,963.

Enrollment has been going down at Maritime universities since 2005, but the University of Prince Edward Island is looking at record high student numbers this fall.

A report by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission says enrollment has fallen 4.5 per cent since peaking two years ago, and could drop as much as 15 per cent at some schools in the next decade. But UPEI expected a 10 per cent increase in enrollment.

Meanwhile, the majority of 800 Nova Scotians polled recently about tuition costs at the province's eight universities said students should pay less for a high education.

Eighty-nine per cent of Nova Scotians supported reducing tuition, and 90 per cent were worried students in the province may not be able to afford university, according to the poll commissioned by the Canadian Federation of Students.

Nova Scotia’s universities have the highest tuition fees in the country, and Acadia’s is the highest. The average tuition in the province is $6,571, while the national average is $4,347, according to Statistics Canada