Ontario unis: nursing’s in, journalism’s out
Ontario's Universities' Application Centre is reporting a 2.7-per-cent increase in high school applicants received by the January 13 secondary school deadline, compared with last year.
The breakdown of application numbers by university and program shows students are looking to smaller universities and affiliated colleges for a more personal undergraduate experience and turning to fields that lead to steady employment. Students are continuing to shun York University in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 CUPE strike at the Toronto university. They are also turning away from Journalism programs, clearly seeing the problems with a degree limited to the trade.
Two older universities, Trent and Laurentian, have seen double-digit percentage increases in applications. Algoma, Ontario's newest independent university - which was an affiliated college of Laurentian until mid-2008 - has seen a jump of more than 20 per cent, from 413 applications to 560; with a 33-per-cent increase in first-choice applicants.
Trent University is benefiting from high rankings in undergraduate surveys, the implementation of all-day GO transit commuter service from Toronto, and population growth in the eastern region of the Greater Toronto Area. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Ontario's newest university institution, continues to experience growth, in part due to its location east of Toronto in Oshawa, but also because of specialized programs in health sciences, engineering, and science. Trent is seeing an increase of 14.9 per cent in applications, with a 13.2-per-cent increase in students naming Trent as their first choice. UOIT has an increase of 8.9 per cent in applications, with a 13.9-per-cent increase in first-choice applications - the highest of any full-size university in Ontario.
The affiliated colleges of the University of Western Ontario - Brescia, Huron, and King's - are experiencing large increases in applications as students increasingly turn their attention to student-faculty ratios and class sizes in choosing their institutions of study.
Algoma and Laurentian, two universities located significantly north of Toronto in Central Ontario, are both experiencing growth well above the provincial average.
Laurentian University continues to see results from their expansion of francophone course offerings and focused recruitment strategies. This year, the number of students learning in French increased by 26 per cent. LU's new president, Dominic Giroux, personally attends many recruitment events and has focused on outreach in Ontario's francophone communities and secondary schools. He also communicates with potential students as @Dominic_Giroux on Twitter.
Algoma's growth is lead by such programs as biology. Algoma's biology program is heavily focused toward environmental issues - a hot area of study.
Students are applying to education and nursing programs in record numbers. With the recession still battering families, it comes as no surprise that students are seriously weighing their employment prospects before applying to programs. Only three program areas have seen significant decreases in applications: architecture, environmental studies, and journalism. Architecture's overall drop in applications is cushioned by the fact that most of the decrease is not in first-choice students, but instead in students who listed the program as their fourth or fifth choice. Environmental studies was last year's overhyped area of study and the drop is merely a correction. Journalism, on the other hand, is another story, as students are looking at the recession-battered industry and are avoiding a degree with a higher prospect of unemployment than most other fields of study.
Toronto's York University has become a "Last Resort U" for the majority of its applicants. While applications have increased 8.8 per cent compared with last year's retreat in the wake of the disastrous CUPE strike, they still remain significantly below application numbers from 2008. Most concerning for the university is that the majority of applications list York University as third choice or lower.
Institutions will be closely scrutinizing their individual breakdowns over the next few weeks and figuring out what strategies they need to change as they prepare to recruit the class of 2015, starting this summer.
(See also: In enrolment wars, smaller universities rise to the challenge)
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JOEY COLEMAN
Comments
These are promising trends. The last thing in the world we need more of is journalism students! Also, I'm happy to see York starting to pay for its continual labour pains.
Trent is a really great school! Nice to see the numbers climbing!
The choices reflected here are definitely showing that students today are thinking and planning for the long term. Although there is still alot of students going into programs and university's that reflect less thoroughly planned out choices (i.e. the student who pursues a Master's degree just b/c they can't find a job), the fact that students are picking schools where they don't feel like a number, and programs which are going to be in demand (especially healthcare) post graduation is quite refreshing. What does this mean for Ontario in the long term? Hopefully, less students in debt, less strain on our education system, and more people getting helped out.
When I break my hip when I am 70 I am going to be really glad that in 2010 my nurse decided to go into nursing as opposed to journalism.
How is York U a "last resort U" when it holds more than 50,000 students. York always gets a bad rap, but it's actually a great school, my program was challenging, insightful and current and I landed a job in my industry right away. Personally, I'm tired of York always getting the short end of the perception stick.
When talking about York, don't forget to mention Glendon, York's bilingual campus. Glendon is a community in its own, with great programs in both English and French and great faculty. At just under 3000 students, it offers all the advantages of a small university, while giving access to all of York's resources (libraries, etc). Glendon has an amazing reputation, and its students are in demand. Couldn't have picked a better place to study!
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