News

Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer

Avondale College's new mentoring and recruitment initiative Helping Hands has helped keep first semester enrolment strong in uncertain economic times.

Some 1158 non-postgraduates are studying at Avondale this semester compared to 1103 in semester one this past year. Seventy-four of these enrolled because 52 students registered to recruit them as part of Helping Hands. The initiative encourages students to mentor those they introduce to the college by, among other things, helping them register and introducing them to college life. Upon completion of a checklist, the student serving as the mentor can choose to receive a free subject or take $1000 off their living expenses.

"Our students are one of our best forms of advertising and promotion," says director of advancement Lorin Bradford. "When we have a satisfied student base talking up the college, it will lead to growth."

Three of the college's six faculties increased enrolment--education up 13 to 465, nursing up 23 to 262 and science up one to 23. Enrolment in the other three faculties decreased--arts down three to 77, business down six to 57, theology down seven to 112.

The size of classrooms on the Sydney campus has limited the number of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing. Avondale has set up a waiting list because it could not accept all the applicants for the course. Assistant course coordinator Dr Alison Smedley says the list shows Avondale is holding its own compared with larger tertiary institutions. "Students want to study here because the course has a good name."

The Diploma of General Studies has again one of the highest numbers of first-year students (103), only three down on its record. Enrolment in the course is 29 up from semester one this past year. "It's refreshing--if at times exhausting--to be involved in such a successful program," says coordinator David Potter.

The closure of the business certificate courses has seen enrolment in the Vocational Education and Training sector decrease from 31 in semester one this past year to 23 this year. The number includes 13 new School of Aviation students--enrolment in the course closed this past year because of financial difficulties.

An upgrade to Avondale's student management system, Callista, makes total enrolment comparisons with previous years difficult. The date by which some students enrol has changed, which has most significantly affected postgraduates, most of whom are yet to enrol. However, the number of Doctor of Philosophy students has increased, from three this past year to a record nine this year.--with data analyst Chris Thiele

Caption: Enrolment at Avondale College has increased about 70 per cent since 2000. The graph measures enrolment at the end of each year, so the total number of students for 2009 will be available in 2010.