AUCC (the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, which represents 95 Canadian public and not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges) announced a set of statistics for Canadian university enrollments for the 2011-2012 academic year:
- 1,015,000 undergraduate students, an increase of 2.24% over 2010
- 195,400 graduate students, an increase of 3.2% over 2010
- 100,000 international students in Canada, from more than 200 countries, an increase of 11% over 2010, and a four-fold increase since 1995.
- university graduates earn on average $1.3 million more over a lifetime than high school graduates, and they are less likely to be unemployed. Even during the recession, between 2008 and 2010, there were 300,000 net new jobs created for university graduates.
This should be compared to a drop of 10% in university enrollments in UK universities for 2011-2012 (due to a steep rise in tuition fees).
Any suggestions on where to find comparable enrollment figures for the USA, Australia or other countries would be welcomed.
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
