St. Clair College has hit a record enrolment number again this year - by a razor-thin margin.
"The good news story here is we have another record, although it’s almost on par with last year’s enrolment, which was a record," said Associate Vice President, Student Services and Registrar Michael Silvaggi. "Year-over-year we are plus two students."
The official Fall 2019 count for full-time post-secondary students is 12,817, compared to 12,815 in 2018. When part-time students are added to the mix, the count increases to over 13,200 students.
"From the institutional standpoint of the short-term stability and long-term sustainability of the College, I'm always encouraged to see strong enrolment numbers," said President Patti France.
"But from the perspective of educators, all of the College's faculty and staff aren't looking at numbers - we're looking at people. We're seeing the individual hopes and dreams of 13,000-plus students and realizing that it is our duty to provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their ambitions. Regardless of our enrolment, we are re-energized every year to ensure that each of those individual quests meets with success."
The College is doing its part to boost its numbers in the downtown core, with large enrolment numbers in the School of Media, Art and Design, the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts and the Zekelman School of Business and IT. There are 2,836 students enrolled in the downtown programs, compared to just over 900 two years ago.
General business programs and data analytics "had a huge increase," Silvaggi said. "So everything is up in the business world downtown."
Overall, there was a four percent increase in international students, for a total of 4,188 students. The number of domestic students totalled 7,552, which includes 1,227 at the Chatham campus. Another 1,077 students were taking classes at the ACE Acumen Academy in Toronto, where St. Clair College programs are offered through a public-private partnership.
"Ongoing intakes are helping us to maintain high levels of enrolment," Silvaggi said.