The heavy workload as colleges try to make up for lost class time is one reason some Greater Sudbury college students say they chose to drop out following this fall's nearly five-week faculty strike.
Numbers released by the province this week show 10.3 per cent of Ontario college students — that's about 25,700 — applied to the government for a special tuition refund.
Locally, Greater Sudbury's two colleges — Cambrian College and Collège Boréal — revealed last week that more than 700 had withdrawn from their programs.
Advanced Education and Skills Development Minister Deb Matthews told the Toronto Star she hopes these students return to college.
“We need your talent and skills in this province and want to keep seeing you succeed,” she said. “We will work with colleges to support and encourage students to re-enroll.”
When school resumed in November after the province legislated instructors back to work, the province promised a full tuition refund for students who decided to walk away from their college studies.
They had two weeks after school started again to decide whether or not they wanted to continue with the semester. The deadline was Dec. 5.
Sudbury.com spoke to three Cambrian College students who chose to withdraw from their programs.
Douglas Thistle was in his third year of the college's Theatre Arts Technical Production program.
He said the increased workload following the labour dispute caused him to withdraw from the program.
“I wasn't going to be able to handle the course load,” Thistle said. “I know I wouldn't be able to finish.”
A woman in Cambrian's pre-health program, who didn't want her name used, said she returned to school after the strike, but she too found the workload overwhelming, and dropped out on the Dec. 5 deadline.
The week after classes resumed, she had three midterms and two assignments due, and the week after, two more midterms and another two assignments.
Hoping to enrol in nursing after completing the one-year pre-health program, the student said she wasn't too impressed when she heard some units had been dropped from some of her courses.
“During those two weeks it was crazy,” she said. “On top of feeling overwhelmed with school, I just felt so discouraged because this is ridiculous. I was just mentally really struggling with those two weeks.”
She said she may return to college next fall, but doesn't plan on taking pre-health again.
Another Cambrian student who also didn't want his name used also said the heavy post-strike workload played a part in his decision.
The father of three was in his second year of studies in the college's heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician (HVAC) program.
He said he dropped out because he figured he couldn't keep up because of his family obligations and poor health due to injuries sustained in two car accidents since 2010.
“I was already having a little bit of a hard time keeping up before they went on strike,” he said.
“From what I understood, they told us basically that the course, they would fit everything in, condense it, everything between now and the end of April.
“I know because of my health and everything that was going on, that was a problem for me.”
The man said he was studying business at Cambrian before he enrolled in HVAC, and plans to instead finish up his business diploma starting in January.
He said there's many online courses in that program, and that works better with his family situation.
“I decided to try to finish up my business (diploma) to have something under my belt,” he said.
