College enrolment on upswing. (Sudbury).

Enrolment numbers at Cambrian College in Sudbury have been declining over the last five years, but last fall the college saw an increase in the number of registered students.

"Enrolment numbers always change, but over the course of the last three years the enrolment numbers have been on a decline," says France Quirion, the registrar and director of student affairs at the college. "However, this past fall we saw a turnaround and saw our numbers increase."

In 1997 3,927 full-time students were enrolled at the college, while in 1998 there were 3,724, and in 1999 this number declined even further to 3,614. By the year 2000 there were 3,466 full-time students enrolled. However, last fall enrolment rose by 8.4 per cent, she points out.

The jump in enrolment "could have to do with some of the new program mixes that we have been putting together," says Ivan Filion, the college's interim president. "We aggressively went for the computer-related programs and we made sure we went for external accreditation."

Students are offered ministry approved courses and some courses offer recognition from businesses like Microsoft.

Quirion also notes that the two- and three-year programs being offered, such as travel and tourism, were partly responsible for the increase in enrolment.

"When we introduce new programs that are two or three years in duration, the first year you see an increase in activity and the second year you see an increase, because that program had never been offered before," Quirion says.

Cambrian College introduced several new programs within the last year, which may help them to increase their enrolment numbers even further.

Some of the new programs offered at Cambrian include welding and fabrication technician, pre-health, postgraduate advertising and bachelor of science in nursing.

As for the future of the college, Filion says he would like the college to become more sophisticated.

"We are aggressively applying for applied degrees," Filion says. "There is an increase in the expectation of skill sets that one person should have and bring to that career. You can only accomplish this by more education."

He also pointed out that some students do not wish to go to school for three or four years.

This is why Cambrian remains focused on programs that last 20 to 40 weeks.

"In the next year or so you will see Cambrian trying to mushroom out at both ends of its spectrum, back into the certificate programs, and we will continue to aggressively develop ways of bridging either to post-graduate diplomas or to applied degrees," Filion says.

The eDome (Electronic Delivery of Modular Education) is another area that may help develop the future of the college. The eDome, which is part of a 121,000-square-foot Superbuild project currently underway at the college, is a circular teaching/demonstration theatre that will be equipped with state-of the-art multimedia technology.

"We have designed a room with the purpose of being able to package what has occurred in that room, delivering it in real time or in an asynchronous mode later on," Filion says.

The eDome should be ready for use by the fall of 2002. This space "should improve learning on campus, and it should help us reach out to markets that have never been touched before," Filion says.