Surrey thrives, enrolment climbs at SFU
Joanne Curry, 778.782.7475; joannec@sfu.ca
Jon Driver, 778.782.3925; driver@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.3210, marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca
Enrolment at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus is on a steady climb while the numbers across the board for the university are also expected to be above targets, initial figures show.
According to preliminary enrolment figures, nearly 25,000 students are registered for courses at SFU this year, up about 3.8 per cent. Of those, 5,186 are new students.
At SFU Surrey, a record number of students will be hitting the books this fall semester - more than 5,200 undergraduate students are enrolled while more than 400 graduate students are taking courses on campus - and that could rise further by the semester’s third week, when the figures are finalized.
“SFU Surrey is the first choice of students in the Surrey school district, which is now SFU's number one feeder district," says executive director Joanne Curry.
“A growing number of international students are also discovering our campus and its distinctive programs in engineering, business, and interactive arts to name a few. This makes it a more exciting learning community for all students," Curry notes.
This year the Surrey campus received an average of three applications for every seat, compared with a 2:1 ratio last year.
“The popularity of the Surrey campus just continues to grow,” says Jon Driver, SFU’s vice-president academic, noting the university’s original agreement with government was to build a campus for a much larger student population than it currently accommodates.
“Clearly there is a demand for those spaces – we believe we could easily fill many more if the funding and space were available.
“Its status as the most popular post-secondary destination for Surrey high school students is no surprise,” Driver adds. “It’s a campus where a wide range of academic programs share space with exciting research projects and world class professors.”
Overall, the number of students entering SFU from high schools is up slightly, following a provincial trend, while the percentage transferring from colleges and other universities is down (about 12 per cent). That’s been a trend for the past three or four years, notes Driver, who says the decrease at SFU has been less than at other universities.
The number of international students at SFU also continues to rise with about 800 new international students (a 29 per cent increase) registering this semester. In total, 13.9 per cent of currently registered students are international students.
The increase shows that SFU is more and more becoming an attractive destination for students looking to study abroad, Driver says.
And even though SFU’s overall enrolment is up, Driver says the percentage of courses that are full has dropped – and that’s good news for students. “It’s something we’ve been working hard to deal with, and while we’ve by no means solved the problem,” he concedes, “it looks like we are moving in the right direction.”
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