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HBK acceptances down

Western’s affiliate colleges are facing the second largest drop in Ontario acceptances from non-high school students.

The decline reflects a group called non-secondary students, which includes mature students and those coming from other diploma programs like colleges.

The number of accepted admission offers for these students was down by roughly 30 per cent from last year at Western’s affiliate colleges, according to a report released last week by Ontario Universities’ Application Centre.

The University of Guelph’s Humber campus had slightly lower numbers, down 51.4 per cent from last year.

However, the number of offers accepted by students coming from high school rose marginally, with Huron University College achieving an 11.3 per cent increase.

Sheila Blagrave, director of communications, marketing and external relations at Brescia University College, explained the decrease in the acceptance rates of non-secondary students was understandable compared to 2009.

“The numbers were higher in the last couple of years because of the recession. Those who couldn’t find jobs were coming to universities — the drop is definitely reflective of that.”

Donna Moore, associate director at the Student Success Centre, noted the economy is an important external factor influencing the number of mature students studying at Western.

Students often identify themselves as mature if they’ve previously worked full time or have children. But many students not coming out of high school also identify as mature students after completing a college diploma, Moore explained.

Other students may appear as non-secondary if they are from another province, even if they are applying directly from high school.

Across Ontario the numbers of accepted admission offers in programs like science, environmental science, and social work increased significantly among non-secondary students, while the popularity of other programs such as music, family and consumer study, and journalism fell.

“A lot of [non-secondary] students are very career-oriented,” Blagrave noted. “They could be going to community colleges or looking at other universities that have very career-oriented programs.”

She noted Brescia’s nutrition program, which is very career-focussed, had significant growth in acceptance among non-secondary students, to the extent it was oversubscribed.

On main campus, Moore noted social science and the arts and humanities programs were most popular among prospective mature students.

Brescia is also looking into admission agreements in hopes of offering more programming attractive to non-secondary students, Blagrave said.

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