By Allona Sund
The number of high school students storming the gates of university’s ivory towers has sharply dropped this year amid looming fears of government cutbacks and rising tuition fees. And some Ryerson faculties are taking the hit particularly hard.
Five per cent fewer high school students applied to Ontario universities this year, compared to last year’s total of 59,228 applicants. This represents a drop of over 3,000 applications.
“This is the most significant decrease in well over ten years,” said Greg Marcotte, the executive director of the Ontario Universities Application Centre in Guelph.
High school applications to the University of Western Ontario are down this year by eight to ten per cent. The University of Toronto has seen a decrease of about two per cent. Ryerson’s high school applications are down by six per cent.
One of the rare exceptions to this province-wide pattern is Queens University, where Ontario high school applications were up by 11 per cent this year.
While the decrease in applications at most universities was evenly spread out among all faculties, certain programs at Ryerson were hit harder than others. Applications to the graduate and undergraduate Journalism programs are down by 30 and 12 per cent, respectively. Rye’s Hospitality and Business programs received fewer applications as well.
Some observers are attributing the overall decline in university applications ot the increasing cost of higher education. Ontario universities and colleges are raising tuition fees by 10 per cent for the 1995-96 academic year. No one is certain how high tuition costs will rise in the years to follow, but student organizations are predicting that fees could easily double to over $5,000 by 1998.
Last week, York University ran an ad in the Toronto newspapers reassuring people that York’s tuition fee was only $3,000 for the 1995-96 academic year.
“The university ran the ad after receiving numerous inquiries from potential students about rising fees,” said Sheldon Levy, York’s Vice President of Institutional Affairs.
Levy said the tuition fee increases were a major factor in students’ decision whether or not to attend university next year, adding that students have reason to be concerned amidst the uncertainty about how much university costs will rise over the next few years.
“I don’t know how (high school students) couldn’t be concerned, given what the press is saying and the realities after the federal budget,” he said.
But other university officials say there is no reason to sound the alarm bells.
“This is not the time to scream henny-penny and get from the street. The sky is not falling,” said Pat Adamson, spokesperson for the Council on Ontario Universities.
Adams does not believe the decline in university applications is a result of rising tuition fees. “It is just a matter of demographics,” she said.
Adams said today’s high school population is smaller now that the baby boomers’ children have already gone through the education system.
Adams also cites an improved job market as another reason for the drop in applications. She claims more people are finding work straight out of high school.
“I don’t believe that,” said Ashkan Hashemi, a researcher for the Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students. “I don’t think we’re quite out of the recession yet to make such predictions. I think it’s just wishful thinking,” Hashemi said.
The upside to all this, according to Marcotte, is that with the fewer number of applicants this year, the high school students who did apply will have better chances of being accepted to the university of their choice. There is concern, however, that this will only benefit those students who can still afford a university education.
“That’s what we have to find out,” said Levy. Research should be done to determine how rising tuition fees are affecting the number of university applications, he added. “This must be done soon before fees are further raised, and we find that we have a calamity on our hands.”
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