FNUC Enrolment Decline Smaller Than First Reported

FNUC Enrolment Decline Smaller Than First Reported

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 13:38

 

 

The provincial goverment is backing away from First Nations University of Canada enrolment figures reported in the media a couple of weeks ago.

 

According to initial statistics supplied by the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour, the school saw enrolment drop from 2,503 students in 2004 to 1,046 the following year.

 

But ministry spokesman Chris Jones-Bonk says the figures reported in the media were misleading, because they were taken from two different sources that used different methods to arrive at the numbers.

 

Statistics supplied by the FNUC and the University of Regina still show a decrease in enrolment over the years in question — but it’s considerably smaller than originally reported.

 

According to the U of R numbers, which don’t include visiting students or students from stand-alone programs, enrolment dropped from 1,237 to 1,046 from 2004 to 2005.

 

The FNUC numbers say enrolment dropped from 2,503 students to 2,425 during that time period — and that 2,299 students were enrolled in 2006 and 2,186 in 2007.

 

Jones-Bonk doesn’t see those numbers being much of a concern for the government.

 

Meanwhile, FNUC spokesman Al Ducharme is upset the media has been slow to repair the damage the original report has done to his school’s reputation.