This year’s drought isn’t the only reason for fewer students attending
several agricultural colleges across the Prairies.
General agricultural courses are losing students this fall in favour of
more specific courses.
Bob Tyler, associate dean of the agriculture college at the University
of Saskatchewan, said his college has been recording lower enrolments
in both the four-year degree and two-year diploma courses.
The associate dean said the generally weak farm economy is hurting
enrolments, especially as the cost of tuition has been rising. Parents,
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as well as young people, see agriculture as a less successful career
choice. Also, there “are a lot fewer people in rural Saskatchewan” said
Tyler, so the pool of potential students is shrinking.
Students registering this year for the U of S college of agriculture
degree totalled 550, down 17 percent from 663 the year before and a
drop from 725 in 2000-01 and 750 in 1999-00.
The diploma program has 110 students, down 23 percent from the 143 in
the school last year. In 2000-01, the total was 177 and 204 in
1999-2000.
Tyler said the degree program peaked in 1998 when 781 students
registered. The diploma program’s peak came earlier in the late 1970s
when 300 registered for courses.
It is a similar story at the University of Manitoba, said ag dean
Harold Bjarnason. The degree program has about 300 students, down 16
percent from last year, while there are about 85 in the diploma
program, a drop of 22 percent.
The University of Alberta is holding steady with 227 ag program
students this fall compared to 219 last year.
The downward trend appears at Lethbridge Community College where 32
students registered for ag programs this fall compared to 48 last year.
Even the 2001 number was down from the usual 55-60 students, said Vince
Ellert, head of the college’s ag program.
The missing students are likely caught up in the region’s construction
boom in which “anyone with two hands can get a job,” said Ellert. Also,
he has noticed parents discouraging their children from taking up
farming.
The colleges that offer shorter, more focussed courses to those looking
for agricultural industry jobs seem to be maintaining student
population and even increasing them in some cases.
Olds College in Olds, Alta., has 647 students in first-year programs,
the largest ag enrolment it has had, said Bob Wilson, vice-president of
academics. He said horticulture enrolment is up, ag mechanics, business
and the bachelor degree entry program are the same as last year, while
ag production and livestock enrolments have dropped a bit.
Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta., has 205 students in its
agricultural sciences programs compared to 197 last year. Also the ag
business course and the ag mechanics courses are full at 40 and 18
students respectively. Carole Dobson, dean of the ag sciences school,
credits two factors with her school’s steady success.
One is a strong recruitment drive that included radio ads and being
present at community events other than high school career fairs.
The other factor is Lakeland’s use of an advisory committee of industry
people who represent potential employers of the college’s grads. The
advisers evaluate the programs for their relevance.
Dobson said the most popular ag programs the college has are animal
health technology, and a ranch and feedlot rider course in which
students can bring their horse to school with them to learn cattle
management.
At Fairview College in Fairview, Alta., some courses are full and
demand is up for turf and equine training.
Dalin Bullock, dean of agricultural technology, said the college
recognized that targetted and shorter courses fit people’s demands
better than a general diploma ag program. Extension courses for people
already working suit the shrinking rural population and the competition
from the oil and lumber industries in northern Alberta.
At Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, the overall enrolment is
up with about 120 students. However, the more general programs have
slipped in favour of more enrolment in specific courses for the swine
industry, equipment dealer technicians and for precision agriculture.
