STU may be facing a slight drop in enrolment this year.
Ryan Sullivan, director of international recruitment and acting director of Canadian recruitment, anticipates lower numbers.especially with students from New Brunswick.
There are fewer applicants as well as registered students. Sullivan believes this is partly due to an increased focus on skilled work with high school students from the Maritimes.
“There’s a big push for work in the trades,” Sullivan said.
Another factor is the number of high school graduates. Sullivan said over the next te10 years, there will be fewer and fewer students getting their high school diploma in the Maritimes.
Sullivan says lower enrolment could mean fewer part-time professors and classes or programs at universities.
“Fewer students mean less money,” Sullivan said.
He says STU probably wouldn’t be very affected in the short term. Other schools may have to cut entire programs, which probably won’t happen here.
Even though there may be fewer Canadian students, the number of international students is increasing.
Sullivan says much of STU’s recruitment effort goes toward the United States, Latin America and parts of Asia.
“There are fewer students in New Brunswick [so] we’re going to have to find them elsewhere,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan says STU is attractive to international students because of low tuition costs given the quality of education, especially compared with undergraduate institutions in many other countries, such as the U.S.
