Enrolment numbers at Ara show big drop
Enrolments at Timaru’s vocational training institute Ara have dropped significantly with online options, Covid-19 and a buoyant South Canterbury economy all identified as contributing factors.
Timaru campus enrolment figures supplied by Ara show 346 domestic students and three international students enrolled to date for 2021, compared to 518 and 30 in 2020.
Corresponding figures for 2019, 2018 and 2017 showed 539 and 100, 566 and 101, and 612 and 61, respectively.
Ara southern campus manager Leonie Rasmussen said there was ‘‘no clear answer’’ for the drop in enrolments.
‘‘If there was one answer it would be a simple solution.
‘‘Education has changed, society has changed, what the community wants is different to what it wanted five years ago.’’
However, Rasmussen said Covid-19, a shift to online learning and a buoyant economy were contributing factors.
‘‘An obvious factor is Covid-19, which has had a big influence on international student numbers.
‘‘We are also still lucky in South Canterbury in that we have a high employment rate.
‘‘We also have a strong economy and the strong economy does have a big impact.’’
Rasmussen said online student numbers were not captured in the data.
Ara’s southern campus, which includes Otago, Southland, Canterbury and the Chatham Islands, had a combined total of 43 online students in 2017 and that number had increased to 444 in 2020, she said.
Rasmussen said in terms of physical enrolment numbers, there had been growth in areas including health, nursing, construction and managed apprenticeships.
‘‘We are trying our best to make our products accessible.
‘‘We look at every piece of data, we look at every option.
‘‘I am very optimistic about this campus. We have done a lot of work on what we deliver and how we deliver it.’’
Ara chief executive Tony Gray said Timaru enrolments ‘‘evolve in response to a range of demographic, social and economic factors that tend to impact on how, when and what people wish to study’’.
‘‘In recent years, regionally, South Canterbury and particularly Timaru continues to enjoy high employment rates, which tend to depress local Ara oncampus enrolments, while at the same time increases the number of people undertaking on-the-job training.
‘‘Ara continues to update its range of courses which inevitably leads to numerical fluctuations as new and different learners enrol.’’
‘‘South Canterbury and particularly Timaru continues to enjoy high employment rates, which tend to depress local Ara on-campus enrolments.’’ Tony Gray Ara chief executive