Quebec universities report steep rise in regisration

MONTREAL , Oct. 8 /CNW Telbec/ - For the fall semester 2009, 268,167 students registered at Quebec universities. Of this number, 181,316 registered full time and 86,851 registered part time. After a rise of at least 1% a year for the last three years, the total number of registrations rose steeply by 3.8% this year. The last increase of this scale goes back to 2003 and a rise of 4.2%

Full time student registration saw a significant increase (6.2 %) at all levels of study (5.3 % at the undergraduate level, 10.6 % at the graduate level and 6.9 % at the postgraduate level). The number of new full time undergraduate registrants also rose by 7.3%, which will have a favourable impact on total registration in the common years. Part time registration saw a small decrease in numbers by 0.8%.

A number of factors explain these increases. For example, the current economic recession has led to significant numbers of lost jobs, new programs have been implemented and international student recruitment has been stepped up.

Another significant observation already noted in recent years is the presence of women at university. This year, women account for 57.6% of undergraduates, 55.5% of graduate students and 48.1% of postgraduate students. 57.7% of new full time undergraduates registered are women.

We observe that a majority of undergraduate and graduate students are women and that that percentage at these levels has been relatively stable in recent years. However, we also note a steady increase at the postgraduate level.

These findings come from the universities' preliminary registration statistics, excluding data from Télé-université which does not participate in data collection because its registration is a continuous process.

Note that the situation varies greatly from one university to another. For this reason, the statistics for individual universities must be consulted to identify the exact causes of these variations in student registrations. All the data by institution as well as the concept identification used in the data collection methodology are available on the CREPUQ Web site: www.crepuq.qc.ca/spip.php?article102&lang=en

CREPUQ includes all 18 Quebec universities. The organization acts as their voice in relations with government and sectors related to higher education. It also fosters coordination and collaboration between universities, is a research centre for university administrations, acts as a centre for coordination and joint service delivery, and is a resource centre and think tank for its members.

    
    CREPUQ

              Inscriptions aux trimestres d'automne 2008 et 2009 :
          variation en %, au 24 septembre de chaque année, du nombre de
      personnes inscrites selon le niveau d'études, du nombre de nouvelles
    personnes inscrites au 1er cycle à temps plein et de la masse de crédits
                                  au 1er cycle

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                     Variation
                      Variation en % du nombre            en %    Variation
                     de personnes - inscriptions     Nouvelles         en %
                     temps plein et temps partiel    personnes        Masse
    --------------------------------------------     1er cycle           de
    Établissements     1er     2e     3e              - temps       crédits
                     cycle  cycle  cycle  Total         plein     1er cycle
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Bishop's           6.5%  -3.3%   s.o.   6.3%         10.7%          6.1%
    Concordia          3.5%  11.0%  12.7%   4.6%          7.5%          2.6%
    Laval              2.2%   1.7%  -2.3%   1.8%          5.9%          3.6%
    McGill             2.5%   1.8%   5.2%   2.6%          5.9%          0.6%
    Montréal
     +HEC+Poly         4.6%   5.6%   5.8%   4.8%          8.4%          5.4%
    Montréal           4.9%   4.6%   4.2%   4.8%          9.6%          5.8%
    HEC Montréal       0.7%   7.1%   2.1%   2.1%         -3.6%         -0.3%
    Polytechnique     10.6%   9.3%  16.0%  10.8%         18.0%         12.5%
    Sherbrooke         2.0%  26.8%   4.4%   9.2%          7.5%         -0.5%
    Université
     du Québec *     2.5%   4.0%   5.2%   2.8%          7.6%          3.1%
    UQAC               5.7%  -0.1%  -5.3%   4.5%         13.4%          7.6%
    UQAM              -0.5%  -2.6%   1.4%  -0.7%          3.9%          0.9%
    UQAR               6.1%   4.3%   7.4%   5.9%         -0.6%          3.5%
    UQAT               1.9%  23.1%  31.4%   5.1%          3.0%         -1.4%
    UQO                2.5%  17.2%  80.9%   5.9%         17.9%          4.4%
    UQTR               7.7%   9.6%   3.6%   7.8%         12.2%          5.6%
    ENAP               s.o.   2.1%  31.1%   2.7%          s.o.          s.o.
    ÉTS                6.3%  34.9%  22.4%  10.0%         16.2%          8.4%
    INRS               s.o.  -5.0%   2.1%  -1.3%          s.o.          s.o.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ensemble
     des univer-
     sités *         3.1%   7.0%   4.5%   3.8%          7.3%          3.0%
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    s.o.: Sans objet
    *   À l'exception de la Télé-Université.
    

For further information: Chantal Pouliot, Director of Communications, Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities, [phone], extension 244