Enrollment is on the rise

The U of R sees record enrollment

Over 14,000 students are currently enrolled at the U of R. / Michael Chmielewski

Enrollment at the University of Regina has been rising for six consecutive years. Almost 14,000 students are currently enrolled at the University of Regina. This number is expected to increase by early October, according to the U of R communications and marketing website.

U of R President Vianne Timmons, in a statement on the U of R website, said “I am proud of the work we have done over the past several years to promote and accommodate a greater diversity of students on our campus. Our investments in new and innovative programs – together with additional student supports and an emphasis on making a University of Regina education as accessible as possible for students from across Saskatchewan and around the globe – have helped us build a university that is more vibrant than ever before in its 40-year history.”

Furthermore, an increase has also been shown in number of students attending spring and summer classes. This year, enrollment was up by 8 per cent compared to the 2013 spring and summer semesters. According to the University of Regina communications and marketing, a 41 per cent growth has been seen for the spring and summer semesters over the last ten years. There has been “an increase in enrollments on online courses both in the fall and spring and summer semesters” says Dr. Thomas Chase, Provost and Vice-President. “We have more classes now [available] on evenings and weekends that students are taking”.

When asked, specifically in which department these numbers are increasing, Dr. Chase said we have seen a substantial growth in “the nursing program, which means an additional 350 students, this fall, into nursing. [The] vast majority of those students are domestic students. We are also seeing substantial growth in engineering and a good portion of that growth is international. Our programs in areas like petroleum engineering are very attractive to international students.”

Last year, the University of Regina received a 1.9 per cent increase in provincial funding according to the President’s message in March 2014. As it is a consistently growing institution, the U of R found staying within the budget to be challenging. When asked, how does this budget impact programs, Dr. Chase replied, “We have programs which are in very high demand, we are seeing a lot of students coming into areas such as engineering, which is quite substantial. Our nursing program has attracted a total of 1400 students to our campus. Of course, we are constantly discussing with government the needs of the University for adequate funding to ensure that students have classes that they need and we will continue those discussions with them but at this point we have not reached capacity”.

It’s great to have more students choosing the U of R as a post secondary institution however; can the U of R’s infrastructure support this over-flow of students?

“Yes we believe it can. We have made some changes” says Dr. Chase. “More online courses are available to students, we have seen an increase in enrollment on online courses… and in terms of general campus infrastructure, what we call the physical plan of campus, yes we have not yet reached capacity”.

With the University of Regina growing as an academic institution, we hope that more resources and programs will become available for students to take advantage of.