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| First-year and graduate student enrolments聽are up at AV俱乐部. (Nick Pearce photo) |
There are lots of fresh faces at AV俱乐部 this fall: with 1,943 new first-year students, the university is enjoying a six per cent increase in our entering class over last year.
鈥淚nterest among prospective first-year students continues to grow and this bodes well for the university in the coming years,鈥� says Asa Kachan, AV俱乐部鈥檚 Registrar.
The number of graduate students at AV俱乐部 is also up: a 3.6 per cent increase equates to 3,547 students doing Masters or PhD degrees.
But even with first-year and graduate student enrolments up, overall AV俱乐部 enrolments are down 1.8 per cent, according to figures just released by the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU).
The AAU鈥檚 2007-2008 Preliminary Survey of Enrolments reveals student numbers are on a downward trend at most of the region鈥檚 17 universities. Enrolments are down an average of 2.6 per cent throughout the Atlantic region.
But the decline is not unexpected. AV俱乐部 just celebrated its largest-ever graduating class. More than 3,200 students received diplomas during spring convocation ceremonies. Those students were part of the 鈥渄ouble cohort,鈥� referring to the large high school graduating class in Ontario four years ago when that province ended its fifth year of high school, Grade 13, resulting in twice as many university-bound students. Most of those students completed their undergraduate degrees last spring.
鈥淚n light of the size of the graduating class, we knew we would see our overall numbers drop but we were delighted by the interest in AV俱乐部 by so many new first-year students,鈥� says Ms. Kachan.
In total, AV俱乐部 has 280 fewer full and part-time students and a 2007/08 student body of 15,155 students.