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Province funds grad spaces

By Amit Shilton

News Editor

Ryerson is making room for nearly 300 new graduate students after a financial injection from the provincial government last week.

The province is set to commit to $51.6 million to its universities, creating about 3,300 graduate spaces province-wide. The money comes from the $6.2-billion Reaching Higher program.

Ryerson received the sixth most number of spots, while the University of Toronto led with 588 spaces. York University will expand by 168 spaces.

“The good news is that relative to many universities we got a good number of places funded,” said Ryerson President Sheldon Levy. “The bad news is that we got enough places funded to handle the enrolments we presently have today.”

The school has seen a 32 per cent increase in applications to its Master’s programs in the last year. That’s coupled with a 100 per cent increase in PhD applications.

The school knew they could count on funding for more spaces earlier, but now isn’t sure how to handle next year’s applications. Levy is making pleas to the government for more money so the school can continue to expand.

“How are we going to continue to meet the demand of so many students who want a Ryerson graduate education?,” said Levy. “We knew there was another fund, so we bet, took a gamble, that we would get at least this much from the fund.”

The announcement is the second phase of the government’s grad expansion initiative.

Ryerson has received a total of 1,029 spaces.

 

 

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