Mohawk College set to welcome a record enrolment

More than 13,000 students across three campuses

The enrolment numbers keep growing at Mohawk College

More than 13,000 full-time students are expected to begin the fall semester next week at Mohawk’s Fennell, Stoney Creek and McMaster campuses.

Exact numbers won’t be known for a few weeks as some programs are still accepting applications until Sept. 17.

“We will have record enrolment again this year,” said Paul Armstrong, vice-president (academic) at Mohawk.

Those numbers include 7,200 first-year students, more than 6,000 returning students and more than 3,000 students from more than 70 countries.

Armstrong noted the number of international students is also a record for Mohawk.

“The more diversity we can have in our international population, the better it is for our campus overall,” he said.

As in past years, the college is holding a “Day One” orientation for new students on Tuesday.

That includes an official welcoming from Mohawk president Ron McKerlie, along with food trucks and entertainment.

College officials will also be on hand to welcome first-year students at the Stoney Creek and McMaster campuses Tuesday.

Classes begin on Wednesday.

“We’ve had a major renovation at all our campuses,” Armstrong said.

New to the Fennell campus is a program focusing on business analytics.

“We capture data all the time, so this is going to be how we create graduates who can mine the data and examine it and do predictive modelling and help improve efficiencies based on data that’s available,” Armstrong said.

The college launches a new cybersecurity program at the Fennell campus in January.

Last month, the $54.25-million Joyce Centre for Partnership and Innovation opened to student at the Fennell campus. The first institutional building of its kind in Ontario, the centre features a self-sustained energy system that should make it self-sufficient when it comes to electricity.

Power to the building comes from a small sea of solar panels on the rooftops of the centre and some nearby buildings.

A geothermal system will heat and cool the facility.