St. Clair College narrowly managed to hit another record enrollment number again this year.
College officials say the count for full-time post-secondary students is 12,817 for fall 2019, compared to 12,815 in 2018.
The count increases to over 13,200 students when part-time students are included.
“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,” says registrar Michael Silvaggi. “Year-over-year we are plus two students.”
St. Clair president Patti France says from the institutional standpoint of the short-term stability and long-term sustainability of the college, she’s always encouraged to see strong enrolment numbers.
"But from the perspective of educators, all of the college's faculty and staff aren't looking at numbers – we're looking at people,” says France. “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.”
The college also had large enrolment numbers downtown 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,” says Silvaggi. “So everything is up in the business world downtown.”
Overall, there was a four per cent increase in international students, for a total of 4,188 students. The number of domestic students totaled 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.
