St. Clair College Fall 2024 Enrolment Sees Big Gains In Domestic Students

St. Clair College saw significant increases at its Chatham Campus as well as sizable growth in domestic students for fall 2024.

The largest enrolment increases are for in-demand professions such as Practical Nursing, Personal Support Worker, Early Childhood Education, Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician, and Electrical Techniques and Robotics.

A total of 15,761 full-time students are enrolled at all three Windsor and Chatham campuses and the Ace Acumen campuses in the Greater Toronto Area. That is a slight decrease of about two per cent below last year’s fall figures.

Domestic student enrolment has gone up by nine per cent, with 628 more domestic students enrolling in programs at St. Clair than in the Fall 2023 semester. Total domestic enrolment for Fall 2024 is 7,594, marking the first time since 2018 that domestic numbers have reached that threshold.

Chatham has also seen a large enrolment jump of 29 per cent, with 1,382 full-time students studying at that campus. The big increase is being driven by strong uptake in PSW, Practical Nursing, Powerline Technician, Police Foundations and Developmental Service Worker programs.

“Our strong enrolment has benefited from two developments this year,” observed St. Clair College President Michael Silvaggi. “First, for the first time in recent memory, our enrolment of domestic (Canadian-born) students enjoyed a significant increase. The area’s traditionally low birth-rate is now being offset, it appears, by the substantial migration of new citizens to our region from other parts of Ontario and Canada.”

In total, there are 12,235 full-time students studying at St. Clair College’s Windsor and Chatham campuses. 4,641 of those students are international, which means the ratio of students is 62 per cent domestic, and 38 per cent international. 3,526 students are enrolled at GTA-based Ace Acumen Academy.

The college says that overall, there is an 11.9 per cent decrease in the number of international students studying at St. Clair College this fall, largely driven by the fact that Ace Acumen Academy did not intake new students this semester.

“Despite the recent announcements of federal restrictions on immigration, our international student enrolment remained very stable. Thanks to having many service supports in place for these global visitors, our visa allocations were largely untouched. We’re also very excited by the large increase in enrolment at our Chatham campus, made up of both domestic and international students,” President Silvaggi said.