Although Laurentian University is reporting a 25-per-cent year-over-year increase overall in confirmed students, with increases among international and mature students, it’s still taking a hit when it comes to attracting high school graduates.
When compared with the same statistics in 2020, Laurentian says its fall 2022 confirmants are down 0.19 per cent, meaning the university has virtually the same number of confirmants as it did at the same time in the 2020 cycle.
This as Laurentian continues to undergo court-supervised insolvency restructuring, with the hopes of finally exiting the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) process this fall, after more than a year and a half.
The restructuring at Laurentian has included massive cuts to its programs and employees, including more than 100 professors.
With this as a backdrop, during the last school year, Laurentian’s enrolment dipped by 14 per cent.
The university says the 25-per-cent student confirmation increase reported above reflects all incoming fall 2022 domestic and international students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including transfer, mature, and online students.
But the statistic also takes into account a 23.9-per-cent drop in domestic, high school confirmants over last year, as reported by the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre, or OUAC (compounding an already large decrease in this category last year).
A total of 475 students leaving Ontario high schools have confirmed they’re attending LU this school year. Last year at this time, that number stood at 624.
In 2020, at roughly the same time of year, that number stood at 899, meaning the number of students in this category who have confirmed they’re attending LU has been almost cut in half over the past two years.
OUAC, however, reports that confirmations among domestic transfer, mature and online students is up 34.4 per cent over last year.
This, however, has only brought the numbers in this category back to roughly where they were in 2020.
There have been 516 students in the domestic transfer, mature and online category who have confirmed so far in 2022. Last year at this time, that number was just 376, but back in 2020, the number stood at 509.
Overall, OUAC reports total domestic undergraduate confirmants are down 1.7 per cent over last year.
Laurentian said in a press release it is important to note the above OUAC numbers reflect only a portion of students that may contribute to Laurentian’s overall incoming cohort — OUAC numbers are not a complete representation of Laurentian’s total enrolment.
Not included in the OUAC data above are new incoming domestic graduate, international undergraduate and international graduate confirmations, as well as all returning students, says the university.
Laurentian’s internal data reports undergraduate international confirmants are up 37 per cent, and domestic graduate confirmants are up 32 per cent.
“With a successful emergence from CCAA on the horizon, and after undertaking a comprehensive academic restructuring to align LU’s program and course offerings with what students want to learn, LU is well positioned to view future enrolment with optimism,” said Jeff Bangs, Chair of Laurentian’s Board of Governors, in a press release.
“With our dedicated staff, faculty and community support we are confident that Laurentian will attract more and more students as we emerge from a period of unprecedented uncertainty.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
