University of Windsor President Alan Wildeman, April 28, 2014. (photo by Mike Vlasveld)University of Windsor President Alan Wildeman, April 28, 2014. (photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Windsor

University Faces Projected Drop In Under-Grad Enrolment

When the University of Windsor's Board of Governors sits down to talk about next year's operating budget, expect projected enrollment figures to come up.

They are projected to fall, especially for domestic undergrad students, and that could affect how much provincial funding it receives.

President Alan Wildeman says the drop has nothing to do with the university itself.

"I can't do a thing about national demographics," he says emphasizing improvements the university has made on campus and the addition of programs in Windsor's downtown. "We hit a high water mark in 2012-13 but yeah, undergraduate enrollment; it is down, not only in Windsor."

In 2013, 16,373 full-time and part-time students were enrolled. That fell to 15,557 this past school year and is projected to fall to 15,350 in 2016-17.

In an update to university staff and students last week, Wildeman advised a new budget model would be rolled out in the next school year. Instead of issuing a table of realignment targets meant to make the institution more efficient, Wildeman wrote: "all tuition revenues will be assigned to the faculties based on enrollment." Government grants will be allocated to non-faculty areas of the university to support things like maintenance, administration and student services while international tuition revenues will be split between the two.

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