According to Alan Vaughan, Conestoga's vice president of enrolment management and international education, more than 5800 first-year students have completed the registration process for Fall 2013.
Classes for most Conestoga programs began this week. To allow for late arrivals, official enrolment numbers are calculated after the first ten days of classes, but Vaughan projects that final tallies will show a 4 per cent increase over Fall 2012 in domestic enrolment and an almost 20 per cent increase in international enrolment.
Earlier concerns regarding the effect of striking foreign service workers on international students' ability to obtain their visas in time for class startup have largely been resolved.
In preparation for the 2013-14 academic year, more than 4,200 students visited Conestoga campuses in Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo and Guelph last week to participate in Orientation 2013 and learn what to expect as they start their post-secondary education.
New students were provided with campus tours, student success workshops, panel discussions highlighting various campus services, and opportunities to meet and interact with course instructors and new classmates, all intended to ease the transition process and make their first interaction with Conestoga both fun and memorable.
A Family and Friends program held in conjunction with the student orientation attracted a record number of 1300 participants.
Conestoga is Ontario's fastest-growing college, with enrolment growth of more than 60 per cent between 2006 and 2012.