Student enrolment in agriculture programs at prairie universities and colleges is increasing this year.
“In general, we are actually having a fairly encouraging fall with respect to the number of applicants and number of students we think are going to end up in our seats,” said Jack Moes, academic director of the agriculture and environmental division at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon.
The college’s two-year diploma programs in agri-business and environmental sciences are up two and five students respectively from 40 and 10.
The number of students attending Olds College is at a record high this year with overall enrolment up by more than five percent, or 42 students. Of the seven agriculture programs offered, only one, ag-mechanics, saw a decline in registration, down seven students from 2003.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Interest in animal health programs at Olds continue to be significant. A new veterinarian medical receptionist program, which focuses on assisting vet office operations, was added this fall, with 157 applying for only 30 spots.
Moynihan and Kerry Moynihan, Olds director of marketing and government relations, attribute the strong enrolment to aggressive student recruitment campaigns.
“We’ve been working diligently on getting the message out to prospective students that there is lots of good career opportunities to be had in the agriculture sector and where agriculture and the environment intersect, which is the thrust of our program,” said Moes.
Moynihan said now that the students are in the school, the priority is keeping them there.
“We need to keep our eye on the ball. In the next few weeks we’ll be talking to students about how BSE and the border closure has impacted their families and we may look at some special bursaries in that area… .” he said.
The agricultural degree programs at the universities of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba also saw increases in enrolment. While exact numbers weren’t available from the college of agriculture at the U of S, associate dean Bob Tyler estimates an increase of 35 students in first year degree enrolment while this year’s diploma program numbers look constant with last year.
“We are modestly up this year. It’s a lot better than going the other way. We are quite optimistic as we get some new programs in place, which takes a while, and we continue to market and recruit and tell people what they can do here. We’ll get back to where we need to be,” said Tyler.
The U of S plans to launch several new programs next fall that include specializations in entrepreneurship, agricultural biotechnology and economic programs that deal with rural sociology and resources.
“Our programming will catch up to the broader definition of agriculture as we now know it. Cause to be optimistic, I think,” he said.
At the University of Alberta, 313 students are enrolled in the bachelor of science in agriculture program, compared to 212 in 2003. Ninety of those students are pre-vet, hoping to be at the school only two years before transferring to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon or the vet college to be built at the University of Calgary by 2006.
The University of Manitoba saw a 5.7 percent increase in agricultural undergraduate programs, an additional 49 students for a total of 258, while the two-year diploma program saw a 15 percent increase in 2004. This is the second year of growth for the university after a bit of a downward slide.
Michael Trevan, dean of the faculty of agricultural and food sciences, said part of the U of M’s recruiting strategy has been to explain to potential students that the program is about more than farming.
“This isn’t a faculty of agriculture. It’s a faculty of agricultural food sciences,” he said. “So in a sense, it’s really a faculty of applied science, which happens to be related to agriculture. It’s not all about farming.”
Trevan said more than half of the students entering the faculty come from cities, mainly Winnipeg, and most farm-based students don’t plan to return to the farm but want ag-related jobs.
“All the indications are that there are more than enough jobs out there. The graduates need to think a bit laterally at times and think about where their skills will fit. There were some very obvious jobs out there but some less obvious ones,” Trevan said.
“We are telling something that is absolutely true and that they need to know because at the end of the period of study here, there are some very interesting and well paid, well sustainable jobs which aren’t just in farming but are in the whole agri-food-business chain, from chemical production right through to journalism, which some of the students might not have thought of when they started out.”
