Douglas enrollment on the steady incline

Winter enrollment up five per cent from last year

By Dylan Hackett, News Editor

The enrollment levels for the winter semester are up by five per cent from 2012, according to data released from the registrar’s office. This semester there are over 10,000 domestic students and between 1,100 to 1,200 international students studying at Douglas College. Although enrollment levels are down from the fall semester, Dave Taylor, Marketing and Communications Director assured that this is a usual trend.

“We usually see a very small drop from fall semester into winter semester because some programs end in the winter and also because a lot of people like starting their school year in September, and then you have a bit of attrition in the process,” explained Taylor. “Some people start their program and don’t finish it. They take a break or take one or two courses and go to work.”

There haven’t been major shifts in what programs and areas of study are most popular at Douglas, with the Bachelor of Nursing program maintaining its very high application and enrollment level.

“All of our health sciences [programs] are very popular including animal health technology,” said Taylor. “We have a lot of people studying in humanities and social sciences. Psychology, sociology, and criminology are very popular. A lot of our programs are full but we try to add extra seating for students because this is probably record enrollment for this time of year ever. We’re still looking at continuing growth.”

Douglas’ recent “Do” ad campaign featuring student stories, career paths, and area of studies have been conspicuous throughout SkyTrain cars and stations. The Marketing and Communications office feels that the ads of been successful, with lots of anecdotal feedback being positive.

“We’ve been working on [the ads] throughout the fall. We really wanted to focus on our own students and their successes, challenges, and what they’re working on,” explained Taylor. “That’s been the focus.”

“We’re finding more and more people are learning about Douglas College. We’ve been a sleeping giant in the community for a long time because we have a huge scope of courses people can take but we found through research that there was a disconnect,” said Taylor. “People didn’t realize that Douglas College had as many offerings as we do. That’s one of the things we’ve been trying to get out. We have a vast variety of opportunities for students and the quality of education is extremely high.”

Taylor also explained the benefits of a better-educated populace. Canada is the most educated country in the world with 50 per cent of the population having a post-secondary degree.