Approximately 500 new students expected to join CBU this May

CBU is on pace to become the third biggest University in the province, primed to pass St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, and potentially to rival St. Mary’s University in full and part-time undergraduates in the near future.

As reported by the CBC in March, there are 4,700 students enrolled at Cape Breton University for the winter term, and a little over half of those – fifty-six percent – are international students.

There are currently 873 students on the list of potential spring graduates; the final number – and list – will be released on May 6th, ten days after the release of final grades. Dependent on student incomes, this should keep the student totals somewhere in the vicinity of 4,400  ahead of September, which is typically the largest intake of the year.

It’s worth noting that there is still a paucity of data for CBU’s predictive modelling related to the boom in international enrolment, which underestimated September’s intake by over 200 students. The last day to register for courses in the Spring/Summer session is the day the course begins; with staggered start dates across the four months, students could continue to arrive and register for classes up until July, although after June the course offerings become quite limited.

Net change in total enrollment over the last five years, according to information released by the Association of Atlantic Universities – their preliminary survey of enrolment for 2018 shows CBU at 4,105 students total, and StFX at 5,348. As noted previously, enrolment for the winter semester at Cape Breton University was 4,700.

Net change in enrolment of full and part-time undergraduate students according to information released by the Association of Atlantic Universities – as of October 2018, CBU is reported to have 3,676 undergraduate students vs. 6,361 studying at SMU. Importantly, almost 94% of the 1,069 new students welcomed to CBU that semester were enrolled in undergraduate programs.