45,000 more students in Ontario universities?
Greetings from sunny Florida! (Sorry I haven’t posted in a couple of days; now you know why!) 
But, the Ontario university admissions world continues to revolve despite my being pampered at a way-too-posh conference hotel in Orlando. . .
Ryerson’s student newspaper reported last month:
An army of 320,000 additional students will overrun Canadian campuses over the next 15 years, but Ryerson will hold the line this year by refusing to add any new spaces.
A Statistics Canada study released last week said universities in Ontario alone will see 45,000 more students within the next decade.
. . . and hits at the possibility of a fourth university opening its doors in the GTA:
“I think we will see a new institution in the GTA, and we’ll be supportive of that institution,” (Ryerson President Sheldon Levy) said.
Levy added that he met with presidents of the University of Toronto and York University this week to discuss the issue.
Levy suggested the new post-secondary institution could be built at Greenfield Park in Mississauga.
Levy said that despite the increase in demand, Ryerson does not intend to open more spots at their school:
“The good news is we’re in high demand. The bad news is we’re going to have to say no to a lot of people that deserve an opportunity,” he said.
“And we’re public institutions, and to say no to young people that want an opportunity — no joy in that.”
This serves as a reminder that the university admissions process is not about demonstrating academic qualifications; Ontario has a relative, comparative process that relies on ranking and comparing applicants. Several qualified applicants can and do get turned away from their first or second choice. Although, our system as a whole is not so overburdened that getting in (if you don’t care where) is too terribly difficult.
I always emphasize this point when I give my university admissions seminar, because it’s the knowledge that the university’s job is to compare applicants changes the way we approach the admission process. For the traditionally-schooled, application to most programs is simply done by listing applicants in order of their “Top Six” average, then going down the list filling in spots until the school is “full.”
More students will once again (as it did during the “double cohort” years) artificially rise the required marks for admission and students competing in this primarily marks-based entrance system will once again get sucked into a “grade frenzy.” There’s no better time to be planning an alternative admission strategy than right now!
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader. If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out "starter kit" of articles. Then, click on the pages, posts or categories on the right that interest you for much more information about home school university admissions in Ontario and Canada.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment