York University Ready to Educate its Fair Share of New Students To Help Meet Unprecedented Demand for University Programs; York, in the heart of the GTA, in ideal position to absorb new wave of learners

TORONTO, March 31, 1999 -- York University is ready to meet the needs of the new surge of students who will be welcomed onto our campuses and into our classes early in the new century -- provided the provincial and private resources are there, York University President Dr. Lorna Marsden said in response to the release today of several pivotal reports from the Council of Ontario Universities (COU).

COU released two major commissioned studies: an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers of the projected student demand and its implications, and a report by Angus Reid Group on public expectations of Ontario universities and public responses to options for dealing with the coming increased demand. Among other things, these reports revealed:

Participation rates, changing workplace requirements, population growth, and secondary school reform could see the demand for university education in Ontario increase by almost 40 per cent over the next decade, as 88,900 additional students swell the current enrolment of approximately 229,000 to 317,900 by 2010.

Education is seen as a key priority area for government attention and investment. ...88 per cent of survey participants thought that increasing funding per person to Ontario universities should become a top or somewhat of a priority for the Ontario government. 96 per cent believe that the provincial government should make the double cohort issue (twice as many high school students as usual graduating in the year 2003) a top or somewhat of a priority.

"York is prepared to welcome its fair share of this new surge of students. These facts and feelings should serve to focus our minds -- even more finely -- on the fundamental questions which flow from this portrait. And it is up to all of us to take up these questions -- professors, administrators, students, parents, policy makers; politicians, and the private sector alike," said Marsden.

She added that York, which launched its year-long 40th anniversary celebrations last Friday, will work diligently to ensure that in partnership with the public and private sectors all the needs -- educational, financial, physical -- of this new wave of students (the future) will be met. York has grown from a class of 76 students in 1960 to a University with three campuses, 10 faculties, 20 research centres, and approximately 3,000 faculty, 1,500 staff, and 40,000 full and part-time students.

The central region, which includes the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), is already particularly stretched, both in enrolment and in adequate space and buildings on university campuses. She noted that York is well overcapacity -- 147 per cent -- in terms of its space and buildings accommodating students, staff and faculty. And given the fact that the greatest bulge in the demographic boom is in the GTA -- in which York is right in the middle -- the need for quick response is evident, she said.

Marsden said it was heartening to discover public support for increased investment in higher education, especially given the fact that Ontario universities rank last among the provinces in per capita funding. She said additional operating and capital funding will be needed to ensure that students receive the high quality and accessible education they demand and deserve from Ontario universities. The investment will be well worth it in many ways, said Marsden, adding that people should recognize the unemployment rate for university degree graduates is the lowest in the population across all types of educational attainment, and that a university degree commands the highest average income among different types of education.

Marsden will be available for telephone interviews today between 2 and 3 p.m.

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For more information, please contact:

Sine MacKinnon
Senior Advisor, Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087
YU/031/99