Laurentian University highlights successful recruitment events as it exits insolvency

Laurentian University says it connected with more prospective students than in past years at a large recruitment event in Toronto.

In a presentation to the Sudbury, Ont., university's board of governors on Friday, Pieter Breijer, Laurentian's manager of domestic recruitment, said Laurentian collected the contact information from 5,063 prospective students at the event.

The Ontario Universities' Fair is the largest recruitment event of its kind in North America, and has representation from every university in the province. A large number of the attendees are Grade 12 students from the Toronto area who are choosing which university they want to attend.

This year, 78,623 people attended the event, which took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. That was down from 2019, when 120,338 people were in attendance.

But despite less overall foot traffic, Breijer said Laurentian's number of leads were up from 5,040 prospective students in 2019.

Breijer credited the university's 20 student ambassadors for the higher number in 2022.

"They were amazing," he said. "They were truthfully the reason we did so well."

Breijer said the university also had a record number of pre-registrants ahead of its Fall Open House event on Saturday.

The Fall Open House is when prospective students get to visit the university in person, along with their parents, and learn more about the school's programs and amenities.

Breijer said that at its last in-person event, Laurentian had 156 pre-registrants for the Fall Open House, which resulted in 1,250 visitors on the day of the event. He said they had 250 pre-registrants for the 2022 event.

"It's work like this that will pay off and will help reset the image of our institution up there in the prospective student domain," said Jeff Bangs, chair of Laurentian's board of governors.

Applications down in 2022

The Ontario Universities Application Centre reported that 2,908 Ontario high school students applied to Laurentian in September 2022, compared to 4,909 applicants in 2021. That represented a 40.8 per cent decrease in applications.

The university fared better with other applicants, which include mature students, international students and applicants from other provinces. Those numbers were down 4.7 per cent year-to year, with 1,988 applicants in 2022, compared to 2,087 in 2021.

In February 2021 Laurentian applied for insolvency. In April that year it cut 69 programs and fired nearly 200 staff and faculty members.

In a presentation during Friday's board of governors meeting, Michel Pich, Laurentian's interim vice-president of finance and administration, said the university's insolvency proceedings had a negative impact on enrolment.

But he added that the numbers were less bad than expected.

"Enrolment was better than expected, and provides a sustainable basis from which to return to growth post-CCAA (Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act)," Pich said.

On Oct. 5 Laurentian's creditors voted in favour of a plan of arrangement, which sets out the terms for repayment, and for the university to exit its insolvency proceedings.

Laurentian is set to implement the plan sometime in November.