University enrolment

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Enrolment in Canadian universities hit a record high for the fifth consecutive year during the academic year 2005/2006, in the wake of on-going growth in the number of foreign students and young Canadian adults.

An estimated 1,047,700 students registered for classes, up 3.0% from 2004/2005 when enrolment surpassed the 1-million mark for the first time, thanks to Ontario's double cohort, among other factors. However, the 3.0% gain was the second slowest growth rate this decade.

(The data for enrolment in Saskatchewan are incomplete. Data for the University of Regina were not available. As a result, data at the national level are a slight underestimate of the true value.)

As in previous years, most of the growth in 2005/2006 was fuelled by students aged 18 to 24, whose numbers rose 2.8% to just over 673,000. These young adults accounted for 61% of the growth in 2005/2006. They also represented 64% of total enrolment, compared with 59% a decade earlier.

University enrolment, which was on the decline throughout the mid-1990s, started to pick up late in the decade. This was due largely to a higher number of students aged 18 to 24, whose rate of growth outpaced total enrolment.

Between 1998/1999 and 2005/2006, students aged 18 to 24 accounted for three-quarters of the growth in total enrolment, likely the result of the echo-boom generation, that is, children born between 1980 and 1995.

In addition, a record 80,200 students from other countries enrolled in programs at Canadian universities in 2005/2006, up 6.0% from the previous year. These foreign students represented 7.7% of the total registrations, nearly double the proportion a decade earlier. Half of them were from Asia, and China accounted for 46% of these Asian students.

Also, the impact of Ontario's double cohort has carried forward from the 2003/2004 academic year, when it had a substantial impact on enrolment. At that time, registrations jumped 6.4%, the strongest increase in the previous 28 years.

In 2002/2003, two cohorts of students graduated from Ontario secondary schools at the same time because of the elimination of Grade 13 Ontario Academic Courses from the Ontario curriculum.

Women still outnumbering men, especially as undergrads

Women still vastly outnumbered men in Canadian universities, and their rate of growth rebounded in 2005/2006.

A total of 604,900 women registered for class, up 3.1% from the previous year, while the number of men rose 2.8% to 442,400. The gain in enrolment among men had been slightly faster during the previous year.

Female students accounted for 58% of all registrations, a proportion that has remained steady since 2001. This was up from 56% in 1995/1996 and 51% in 1985/1986.

Total undergraduate enrolment hit 803,500, up 2.1% from the previous academic year, and a 22% increase from 1995/1996. Just over 90% of the growth was due to full-time registrations.

Undergraduate enrolment among men edged up 2.2% in 2005/2006, compared with 2.0% among women. Women accounted for just over 55% of the total increase.

Some 94,000 students were enrolled in a master's program in 2005/2006, an increase of less than 1% from the previous year, but almost 33% higher than a decade earlier. Women accounted for about 53% of enrolment at the master's level, a proportion that has remained relatively stable during the last decade.

At the doctorate level, enrolment climbed 6.1% to 36,700 in 2005/2006. This was the biggest percentage increase in enrolment among all degree programs, including the bachelor's and master's programs.

Men still outnumber women in doctorate programs. However, their proportion has been declining because their growth rate in registrations has been slower. In 2005/2006, men still accounted for 54% of doctorate registrations, but this was down from 61% in 1995/1996.

Full-time university enrolment hits record high

Full-time university enrolment increased 2.8% to another record high 781,300 in 2005/2006.

The number of full-time registrations rose in six provinces in 2005/2006. A 16% increase in registrations in British Columbia was due to the movement of two institutions from the college sector to the university sector in 2005/2006. The next largest gains were in Ontario, at 4.5%, followed by Quebec (+2.2%) and Alberta (+1.9%).

Other provinces registering growth in full-time enrolment were New Brunswick and Manitoba. (Again, data exclude Saskatchewan.)

The largest decline in full-time registration occurred in Prince Edward Island (-2.9%), followed by Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, each with declines of less than 1%.

Part-time university enrolment increased 3.3% to 266,400. The largest gain was in Newfoundland and Labrador (+6.3%). Quebec and all three Maritime provinces saw a drop in part-time enrolment.

Foreign students: More than three-quarters went to Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec

The increase of about 4,500 foreign students accounted for 15% of the growth in total university enrolment in 2005/2006, compared with about 22% in the previous year.

A number of factors account for the continued strength of foreign registrations. These include strong economic growth in leading Asian countries, such as China; new university marketing strategies to counter competition from institutions in other countries; changes in immigration policies; and provincial agreements with other countries to attract foreign students.

Provincially, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec attracted almost 78% of international students. Numerically, the largest increases of international students occurred at universities in Ontario, where the gain was 1,400 and those in British Columbia, where the increase was 2,500.

Asian students accounted for the majority of the total increase in foreign students. Registrants from China rose 7% to a record high 19,200; the growth in students from China accounted for 28% of the gain in enrolment among international students.

Canadian universities also continued to register significant numbers of students from India, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, all of which increased in 2005/2006.

Women have accounted for about 45% of all international students since 1999. In 1992, the proportion was about 39%.

Among foreign students, enrolments increased in all but two fields of study. The biggest decline was in the field of mathematics, computer and information sciences, where foreign enrolment fell by almost 4%.

In the other fields of study, the numbers increased. The rate of growth had exceeded that of the prior year for three fields of study: education; humanities; and health, parks, recreation and fitness.

Majority of new enrolment from humanities

Humanities experienced the fastest growth of all fields of study, a 6.4% increase. In 2005/2006, there were 161,100 students in humanities, nearly 10,000 more than in 2004/2005.

A record 182,800 students were registered in social and behavioural sciences, and law, up 6,400 from the previous academic year. It surpassed business, management and public administration, for the third time since 2002. Enrolment in business, management and public administration reached 169,300, up 4,200 from 2004/2005.

The top three fields of study by numbers of registrants — social and behavioral sciences and law; business, management and public administration; and the humanities — accounted for nearly one-half (49%) of total enrolment.

Student counts in health, parks, recreation and fitness surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time with 104,200, with an annual growth of 5.9%.

Enrolment fell in three fields: mathematics, computer and information sciences; personal, protective and transportation services; and architecture, engineering and related technologies.

The decline in mathematics, computer and information sciences field continued a long-term trend. Only 36,600 students were enrolled in the field, down 9.9% from 2004/2005 and well below the peak of 46,000 in 2001/2002. The field accounted for only 3.5% of total enrolment in 2005/2006, the lowest proportion since 1992.

Available on CANSIM: table 477-0013.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5017.

Data tables are also available under the Summary tables module of our website.

For general information, to order data, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-7608; fax: 613-951-4441; educationstats@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

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