College admission officials say a new $500 deposit to ensure students’ spots in their program of choice has not affected withdrawal rates so far this year.
“There were a number of changes to the fees policy which was implemented to make it easier for students to pay their tuition and to help ensure post-secondary education continues to be affordable.” said Lynn Schumann, current acting registrar.
Cecile Laurin, coordinator for the professional accounting program, said that most of her students are taking advantage of bursaries so early payment didn’t affect them.
Schumann’s findings were the same.
“We saw no trends that would indicate the new deposit had a different impact on any specific program,” she said.
The early deposit did have a slight impact on early withdrawals.
“There is a slightly lower number of withdrawals compared to the same point in time last year,” Schumann said. “The difference to date is really negligible.”
But Schumann stated that the deposit was not meant to be a withdrawal deterrent.
“The main reason for the implementation of the non-refundable deposit was not to decrease withdrawals,” Schumann said.
Jason Machinski, first-year coordinator of the photography program, didn’t notice a difference in enrollment either.
“There was a little confusion because it was something new,” Machinski said. “So we did an e-mail campaign ahead of time. As far as enrollment, it’s up a little bit this year but it didn’t seem to really affect us too much.”