The number of Ontario secondary school students who indicated the University of Ottawa as their first choice in their application for admission jumped by 7.3 percent compared to 2002.
Almost 3,900 prospective students from Ontario made that choice according to preliminary figures released by the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre in mid-January.
It’s a “significant increase” said registrar François Chapleau, especially since the increase for the entire system is only 2.7 percent.
OUAC statistics show that about 71,200 secondary school students had applied to admission to Ontario universities. It’s a little less than the expected number, Chapleau said. “There are slightly fewer students in the system but it seems that more students want to come to Ottawa, which is very positive for the University. It’s an indicator of the quality of our programs.”
“In the past three or four years, the University has become the first choice of a higher proportion of high school students”, said assistant vice-rector, academic, François Houle. “That means that the University is seen in a better light and that more students are attracted by the programs and the campus life that we offer.”
For all Ontario universities, the number of applications is significantly lower than in 2003, which was both a transitional and atypical year because of the double cohort arising from the school reform that abolished Grade 13 – the fifth year of high school.
OUAC predicts that the province-wide university student population will reach 326,000 in fall 2004, which represents an increase of 5.1 percent over last year. Three factors have created this growth according to OUAC: the continued impact of the double cohort; rising participation rates; and an increase in the 18- to 24-year-old population.
Detailed statistics at www.ouac.on.ca
