In the wake of the faculty strike, nearly 2,000 Fanshawe College students have opted to take the tuition refund and withdraw from the fall semester.
A college official has confirmed 1,892 applications to withdraw were received by the December 5 deadline for students to apply for a refund. Roughly half of those choosing to halt their studies have already re-registered to come back in January or next September.
Students were given two weeks after the end of the five-week strike to decide whether they wanted to continue on with their classes in a shortened semester, or withdraw and receive a full tuition refund. The province announced the refund after passing legislation November 19 that sent the 12,000 instructors, counselors, and librarians at Ontario's 24 public colleges back to work.
The provincial government announced that the release of the final number of students seeking a tuition refund could be delayed by a week. Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews indicated the reason for the delay was the time needed to correctly compile the data for release.
Originally, those numbers were to be made public on Thursday.