Conestoga College says it continued to grow last year at a much faster rate than the average for Ontario colleges, cementing its position as the province’s fastest growing college.
Full-time post-secondary enrolments across Conestoga’s campuses totalled 10,389 in the fall, up eight per cent from a year earlier, a news release said. First-year enrolments were up by over nine per cent.
The average growth last year for the entire Ontario college system was much lower at 3.3%, the release said.
Conestoga’s full-time enrolment growth from 2007 to 2012 was 61.1%, the highest in the province and more than twice the system average of 30.3%, it said.
Conestoga’s growth has been spread across the college’s programs and faculties, with particularly large enrolment increases in engineering, information technology and skilled trades programs, said Alan Vaughan, the college’s vice-president of enrolment management and international education.
“Increasingly, students are looking to career-focused education that will provide them with the skills and knowledge to enter today’s job market,” he said in the release. “Conestoga provides a broad range of programs, many of them with co-op and experiential learning opportunities, that prepare students for professional success in areas of high labour-market demand.”
Conestoga’s efforts to attract students from around the world have resulted in a 74% increase in international enrolment and attracted students from 56 countries. “Increasing international enrolment helps to instill a global perspective within the college’s programs and enriches the learning experience of all students,” Vaughan said.
Other major areas of growth in 2012 at Conestoga included a 15.8% enrolment increase in its career-focused degree programs, as well as a 33.8% enrolment increase in graduate certificate programs that provide college and university graduates with job-ready skills in high-demand areas, the release said.
Conestoga College is based in Kitchener, the site of its Doon campus, and one of its campuses is on Speedvale Avenue West in Guelph.