If you are looking for a sign that fall is getting closer, you don’t have to look any further than the University of Regina campus as hundreds of students arrived Monday for moving day.
Classes begin at the U of R on Aug. 30, and enrolment is up around five per cent from last year.
As of Aug. 16, total enrolment for the fall semester is 16,312 students.
We are back at pre-pandemic levels, and you can see the energy on campus that students are coming,” Jeff Keshen, the University of Regina president said.
“I was thrilled this morning to see students coming from Swift Current, from Moosomin, northern Saskatchewan, Calgary, and this morning I met a couple from Nigeria.”
Those living on campus have also increased roughly 30 per cent. It is expected more than 1,100 students will be living on campus in the fall semester.
And for those who moved in Monday, many were excited to experience the downtown life.
“It’s really great if you’re looking to meet people, especially if you are from out of town,” Hadley Harrison from Cold Lake Alberta said. “They hold a lot of events, social events especially if you’re looking to make some friends. It’s really great.”
“It’s good for adjusting to the city life if you’re from the country like me,” said Wyatt Neufold, who comes from south of Swift Current. “It’s a great opportunity to integrate into social groups.”
It was recently announced the federal government is considering a cap on the number of international students in the country, to ease the pressure on the housing market.
For Keshen, he said there is no issue with rooms at the U of R, and hopes more students come to the university.
“I don’t think we have the same situation as we see from some Ontario communities and other major metropolitan areas,” Keshen said.
“We have hundreds of rooms available on our campus. Saskatchewan currently attracts about three per cent of international students and we’re out visiting international students attracting people to our great province who want to stay here afterwards.”
There are currently between 400 and 500 vacant rooms at the U of R.
If the institute isn’t able to fill the additional rooms, Keshen said the university might look at ways to “reinvent that space” for other purposes.