Canadian university enrolment touched record levels in 2003-2004, with the impact of Ontario's double-cohort year, a sharp increase in foreign students and a shift in the country's economy helping trigger the biggest year-over-year increase in more than a quarter of a century, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

During the academic year, the total number of students enrolled in university hit a record 990,400, up 6.1 per cent from the year before and 20.4 per cent from 1997-1998.

Since 1995, university registrations by students in that age group has risen by 27.5 per cent, reflecting the maturation of the so-called echo-boom generation — people born between 1980 and 1995 — and the increased demand for a university education.

“The restructuring of the Canadian economy over the past quarter century appears to have had an impact on demand for university education and the expectation of students on labour market requirements,” Statscan said.

In 2003-2004, another big factor in the enrolment increase was the arrival of Ontario's double-cohort year, which saw students from two levels of high school head off to university at the same time because of the province's elimination of Grade 13.

Tuesday's report didn't say specifically how many students left Ontario's high schools for university that year, but it did note that enrolment growth at Ontario's universities was the highest of all provinces at 9.6 per cent. A total of 394,700 students enrolled in Ontario universities that year.

Also contributing to the 2003-2004 overall increase was an influx of foreign students. A record 70,000 students from other countries enrolled in Canadian universities in 2003-2004, up 16.8 per cent from the previous year.

The only major field to register a decline in 2003-2004 was mathematics, computer and information sciences, where total enrolment fell by 3.2 per cent.

The biggest gain was seen in the field of business, management and public administration, which recorded an increase of 11.6 per cent. That field has led enrolment at Canadian universities since 1999-2000, the government agency noted.

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