Graduate student enrolment up 42% this fall at Trent University

Trent University officials are crediting a 42 per cent increase in graduate student enrolment over the past two years to offering innovative new programming in a transforming learning environment.

The increase in registered graduate students from 495 in 2016 to a record of about 700 for 2018 includes many international students, the university announced Wednesday.

Nearly 60 per cent of this fall’s applications are also from students from more than 31 countries, officials stated in a press release.

The university credited five new professional course-based graduate programs at the School of Graduate Studies for fuelling the growth.

They include Canada’s first course-based master of science in forensic science, Ontario’s first addiction and mental health nursing graduate diploma and North America’s first instrumental chemical analysis masters and graduate diploma.

The graduate diploma and master of bioenvironmental monitoring and assessment – the first online graduate programs of their kind in Canada, and the professional 16-month master of management are also on the list.

Most of the graduate programs are offered at Trent’s Symons Campus in Peterborough. The university offers 19 degree programs and 34 streams of study overall in the humanities, sciences and social sciences.

The new degrees are resonating with students because many of them include an experiential learning component that integrates real-world experience into the curriculum, Trent dean of graduate studies Craig Brunetti said

Many of the programs include two terms of course work, followed by a four-month paid or unpaid internship, he said.

Students are also recognizing the value of additional training and credentials and choosing to pursue graduate education after completing a baccalaureate degree. Enhancing specific skills differentiates students from others, Brunetti pointed out.

He cited the new master of management program exclusively offered at Trent University Durham GTA as an example.

It provides one year of business experience that can move an undergrad degree, such as in history, in another direction.