We’re losing international student enrolment. We’re gaining international student enrolment.
Those are not necessarily contradictory statements when it comes to an annual update presented to the college’s Board of Governors during its March 28th meeting.
Since the huge influx of international students began to benefit St. Clair (and most Canadian postsecondary schools) about eight years ago, the Windsor and Chatham campus enrolment of global scholars has skyrocketed.
As the accompanying graphic at the top of this page demonstrates, from the “base year” of 2018, international enrolment in Windsor and Chatham has approximately doubled. (“Day 10” in the chart’s title refers to the semester deadline when enrolment numbers are official.)
The past year or two, however, have seen slight (one percent-ish) dips in international enrolment at the Windsor and Chatham campuses, but not overall for St. Clair ...
... Because When St. Clair’s “sister school” relationship with the Toronto area’s Ace Acumen Academy is rolled into the equation, annual international enrolment has continued to escalate in a substantial fashion.
Ace Acumen is a private-sector school, that provides secondary school education and English-language training to immigrants (chiefly from Asia).
In the mid-2010s, it began searching for a public college that it could partner with, in order to provide its students with some follow-up – and on-site – postsecondary education opportunities. After months of negotiation, in early 2014, it launched such a partnership with St. Clair.
With abundant academic oversight and licensing its curriculum to the private school, St. Clair offers these programs at Ace Acumen’s multiple campuses in the GTA: Business, Computer Systems Technician–Networking, Data Analytics for Business, Office Administration–Health Services, International Business Management–Logistics, Human Resources Management, and Social Service Worker-Gerontology.
International enrolment associated with the public/private college partnership has climbed steadily since Acumen and St. Clair arranged their union.
Recently, a phenomenon now referred to as “jumpers” has arisen, as cited in the administration’s report to the Board of Governors. These are international students who had, initially, been accepted for admission to St. Clair’s Windsor or Chatham campuses (and, for that matter, other non-Toronto-based Ontario colleges), but who then transferred to Toronto area schools after their arrival in Canada. Fortunately, this college was able to retain many of them by luring them into the St. Clair-delivered programs at Ace Acumen, rather than losing them entirely to other Toronto-area colleges.
Those “jumpers”, it is thought, probably explain the slight dips in Windsor/Chatham international enrolment during the past couple of years – and the increases in Acumen’s attendance.
MORE STORIES FROM THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS MARCH MEETING
• The 2023-24 budget features another big surplus: https://news.stclair-src.org/need-know-news/another-super-surplus-predicted-2023-24
• Saint athletes excelled during the past year: https://news.stclair-src.org/need-know-news/board-hears-athletic-feats
• The college continues to contribute to the economic well-being of southwestern Ontario: https://news.stclair-src.org/need-know-news/college-economic-engine-southwestern-ontario
• The college will continue to pursue its Strategic Directions in the coming year: https://news.stclair-src.org/need-know-news/were-being-directed-strategically
