An early glance at student enrolment numbers at Memorial University indicates an increase in overall enrolment of more than four per cent this spring over last year.

As of the April 29 registration checkpoint, undergraduate registrations have increased by 9.9 per cent over the spring 2019 semester.

As well, there is a 4.7 per cent increase in course offerings for the spring semester this year.

These notable increases are due in part to the efforts of faculty and staff in converting course offerings to remote and online delivery.

These efforts are allowing students to continue their studies while staying at home, in keeping with the principles of social distancing to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

For the same time frame, graduate enrolments have increased by 4.1 per cent and graduate course registrations (excluding 9000 and 9900 course registrations) have increased by 0.7 per cent over spring 2019.

‘Top priority’

“We are pleased to see an increase in our enrolments for the spring semester,” said Tom Nault, university registrar. “A lot of hard work and extra effort by our faculty and staff went in to ensuring the transition of our on-campus courses to a remote delivery format was as seamless as possible for our students.

“One of our main goals is to ensure our students still have a positive and valuable experience, despite the circumstances and impacts of COVID-19 on the post-secondary experience,” he added. “The well-being and success of our students is our top priority, and we are proud of the persistence and resilience they have shown during these uncertain times.”

Final enrolment will be available after the end of regular registration in late May.