Trends in Higher Education

Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

2002

Enrolment

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

Full-time Part-time

Enrolment Status(Trends in Higher Education, AUCC, 2002)

Postgrads

Undergrads

Enrolment

• Undergraduates:-– General arts and sciences, and social

sciences – 100,000 each– Education, commerce, humanities,

engineering – 50,000 each

• Postgraduates:-– Health professions, social sciences– Proportionately more students enrolled in

health, mathematics, physical & biological science continue to graduate level.

Enrolment

• Over last 3 years, full-time university enrolment increased by almost 45,000 students to reach 645,000.

• Part-time enrolment rebounding• Women account for 75% of full-time enrolment growth

since 1981 and more than 90% over last decade• Heightened demand for university education fuelled by

population surge and increase in participation rates.• Increase in participation rates triggered by growing

number of university educated parents, student response to labour market demands, and heightened recognition of the economic & social returns of education

• Full-time enrolment to increase 20-30% by 2011.

Enrolment

• International perspective:-– Women driving enrolment throughout the

OCED.

– Many nations have surpassed Canada’s level of university participation.

– Full-time enrolment growing most rapidly in Australia and UK

– Canada on par with France, Germany, Japan, and far ahead of US.

Faculty

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

Men Women

Full-time Faculty by Gender(Trends in Higher Education , AUCC, 2002)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Other

Assistant professors

Associate professors

Full professors

Full-time Women Faculty by Rank(Trends in Higher Education , AUCC, 2002)

Faculty

Full-time Faculty by Discipline(Trends in Higher Education , AUCC, 2002)

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

Fine and Applied Arts

Agricultural & biological sciences

Education

Engineering & applied sciences

Mathematics & physical sciences

Humanities

Health professions

Social sciences

Faculty

• Hiring requirements of universities over the coming decade are growing because of:-– The unprecedented retirement of aging faculty;– The attrition rates of increasingly mobile faculty;– The increasing enrolment of both traditional and non-

traditional students;– The growing demands for research and development

which leads to innovation; and– The need to improve the quality of the educational

and research experiences offered.