After striking teachers and support staff cost St. Clair College nearly 1,200 students to finish 2017, enrollment is still keeping on par after an influx of international students.
That's according to St. Clair's Mike Silvaggi, he says 10,449 full-time students are enrolled this January, 1,960 of those are new to the school.
Students were given the option to complete the semester with a condensed schedule, or withdrawal and receive a refund, many chose not to return.
"From the 1,200 that withdrew from the fall, about 225 of those students chose to restart their education in January," he says.
Silvaggi — who serves as the colleges Vice-President and Registrar — says it could have been a great semester for enrollment with the new international students.
"Unfortunately the 1,200 that we lost in the fall is overall being replaced by our international intake," Silvaggi says. "It would have been nice to say that we had almost 11,500."
He says the international students were anticipated before the strike began.
Bill-178 legislated more than 12,000 professors, instructors, counselors, and librarians back to work on November 19, 2017 — they had been on the picket line since October 15.
— with files from AM800's Peter Langille.