Applications are booming at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, reaching unprecedented enrolment numbers, according to a news release by Colleges Ontario.
This fall, 180,000 applications to enrol in full-time programs were received, the release stated. Statistically, there was a two per cent increase in applications over 2012, and an increase of 18 per cent over five years ago.
This trend began in 2008 during a global recession where unemployment rates skyrocketed, Colleges Ontario president and CEO Linda Franklin said.
“When the recession hit, applications to colleges soared due to the career specific education that is offered to get people back into the workplace,” Franklin said.
She said other minor causes included the substantial population growth in Kitchener-Waterloo and the Greater Toronto Area, along with rising industries like mining in northern Ontario.
Another cause is a larger number of university students who upon graduation enrol in college programs, according to the press release. In the last five years, there has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of university graduates applying to college, it stated.
“Students are taking longer to understand what they want,” Franklin said. “They enrol in general programs at universities and then wonder what they are going to offer an employer.”
But Franklin said the increasing relationship between universities and colleges calls for better collaboration between the two institutions.
“We need to help students with better credit transfer between institutions to help them finish their education with the most efficiency as possible,” Franklin said.
Kailey Lewis, a fourth-year Carleton University student, said upon graduating she will enrol at Algonquin College next fall. She said the reason behind her decision is that a university education is abstract and more theoretical than the applied education covered at colleges.
“I believe I have a better chance of finding a job with a college diploma,” Lewis said. “I have found the majority of my classes at university to have a theory-based approach which will not help me in my future. Bottom line, I think having a college diploma is more applicable to the real world.”
Lewis said she favoured the idea of a combined university-college education.
“I believe a combination of the two will set me above other students who only have one or the other,” she said.
Francis Jibrael, a first-year student at St. Clair College’s motor technician program said he thinks a college diploma is an effective means of getting an education.
“The college appeals to me because they implement a more hands-on approach to education which better prepares me and other students for the workforce,” Jibrael said.
