The College of New Caledonia (CNC) has experienced a steady decline in its student body over the past four years.
According to provincial figures, the student headcount has gone from 9,500 students in 2013-14 to just over 8,100 students last year, which encompasses all campuses such as the Lakes District.
The post-secondary institution believes an overall decline in Kindergarten to Grade 12-aged children in the region and an older median student age of 27 has contributed to the drop.
The booming economy in places like Prince George is also to blame.
“One of the things is that we’ve enjoyed a very buoyant economy in the interior, Prince George and in the north when there are lots of jobs very few people are coming to school so that also explains it,” says Henry Reiser, CNC President.
CNC is also seeing a shift in a number areas, leading to the some of the recent fluctuations.
“What in fact is happening now is even though the headcount is down the number of registrations and courses is going up so fewer and fewer part-time students and more full-time students.”
The college’s Dental Hygiene program was also suspended for a year during this time.
Reiser adds this did play a role in the enrolment decline.
“There would have been about 40 students in total impacted so that makes a difference. We also have been very fortunate to offset that with our trades programs and international students – this is not included in the student headcount numbers and that pushes it up and in fact, if we go as far back as 2011 to 2017 we’ve seen an overall decline of about eight percent, which is tolerable.”
As for how CNC plans to bring its student numbers back up to past levels, the solution might come in the form of a recent partnership.
“We are participants in the Study in the North initiative here in British Columbia and we’re partnering with UNBC, Northwest Community College and we’re actively recruiting to bring students from outside the region to study in the region, not just international students but domestic students as well.”
A link to the Student Head Count Numbers can be found here.