More people seek higher education during pandemic as applications to Ontario universities increase

More people in Ontario want to return to university this fall as the number of applications have risen this spring.

And it’s not just high school students heading off to university. The Ontario University Application Centre (OUAC) in Guelph said between April of 2020 and April 2021 the number of people applying in the category called ‘non-secondary’ has spiked by 20 thousand applications.

The centre separates the applicants into two categories. The secondary stat includes 11,000 students ready to graduate from high school, which is a number OUAC attributes to provincial demographics.

Non-secondary includes mature students, transfers from college or other provinces and international students.

The total number of applications this year topped 700,000, the highest number since at least 2012.

Heather Lane, the executive director of the Ontario Universities Application Centre, says they can only speculate why there is an increase.

“We don’t know if that’s because there’s more people out of work because of COVID. And they’re deciding, ‘Well, if I can’t get a job, I might as well go and upgrade my skills and a degree,'” said Lane.

“Eventually we’re going to come out the other end of this. And you don’t want to be sitting waiting for that.”

The secondary stats show the number of students graduating from an Ontario high school who have applied to University by the April deadline. The non-secondary stat includes mature students, transfers from college or other provinces and international students. (Submitted by ouac.on.ca)

The increase in both statistics were noticed at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

Kelly Gallagher Mackay, a liberal arts assistant professor, says she thought because of COVID-19, many students would turn away from going to university because it would be an online experience. That wasn’t the case.

“We’re seeing an increase in both students going straight out of secondary school and into post-secondary. And more significantly, a big jump in the number of students who are going into university who’ve already been in the work world or doing something else,” said Gallagher-Mackay.

“And that’s sort of an interesting comment. Is it because the economy is so bad that people see the need to reskill? Or is it because this is a real opportunity or people recognize the need for sort of, I would say, a flexible set of skills to be prepared for whatever comes ahead?”

In February, both Laurier and the University of Waterloo reported an increase in people applying for grad school, which includes pursing a masters degree or a Ph. D. UW reported applications were up 17 per cent compared to the average number of applications received in the last three years.

The numbers released in April are only preliminary and the final numbers of how many students will be in university will be released in June when students confirm which post-secondary school they’re attending.

CBC K-W reached out to the Ontario College Application Service for a comment on their enrolment stats, but there was no response.