The Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC) has released the latest application data (May 11, 2022) and the number of applications is the highest it’s been in 10 years (or perhaps since the double cohort). At 749,113 applications, it represents a 6.2% increase over 2021, largely driven by an 8.4% increase from Ontario secondary school students.
While the number of applications saw significant growth the growth in the number of students applying was much smaller at .9%. The growth was a result of a 5.3% in the number of applications per applicant to 4.6. So the pool hasn’t grown as much as the competition!
Here is the summary data. For those not familiar with the Application Centre’s data collection, 101 applicants come from Ontario secondary schools and 105s are out of province/country secondary school students, mature students, and transfer students.
Ontario Secondary School Students (101)
| May 4, 2022 | May 5, 2021 | % Difference | |
| Applications | 520,306 | 479,767 | 8.4% |
| Number of Applicants | 92,439 | 90,886 | 1.7% |
| Applications per Applicant | 5.6 | 5.3 | 6.6% |
All Other Applicants* (105)
| May 3, 2022 | May 4, 2021 | % Difference | |
| Applications | 228,807 | 225,484 | 1.5% |
| Number of Applicants | 69.688 | 69,783 | -0.1% |
| Applications per Applicant | 3.3 | 3.2 | 1.6% |
* Out of Province/Country Secondary School Students, Mature Students, Transfer Students.
Total (101 & 105)
| 2022 Admission | 2021 Admission | % Difference | |
| Applications | 749,113 | 705,251 | 6.2% |
| Number of Applicants | 162,127 | 160,669 | 0.9% |
| Applications per Applicant | 4.6 | 4.4 | 5.3% |
The growth in applications was not distributed equally across all 26 universities. Here are the top 10 for Ontario secondary school students:
Ontario Secondary School Students (101)
| May 4, 2022 | May 5, 2021 | % Difference | |
| Ontario Tech University | 10,619 | 7,931 | 34% |
| University of Guelph | 33,291 | 27,141 | 23% |
| Algoma University | 892 | 762 | 17% |
| Trent University | 13,286 | 11,370 | 17% |
| OCAD University | 2,338 | 2,010 | 16% |
| University of Waterloo | 42,956 | 37,389 | 15% |
| Queen’s University | 38,238 | 33,766 | 13% |
| University of Ottawa | 35,251 | 31,138 | 13% |
| York University | 50,318 | 44,520 | 13% |
| Brock University | 17,205 | 15,548 | 11% |
Congrats to all of them! Though we can’t make a straight-line correlation between their success and advertising, we couldn’t help but notice that 8 of the top 10 universities are using our SchoolFinder Group platform (SchoolFinder.com, ScholarshipsCanada.com and StudyinCanada.com) to reach students and generate leads.
Looking at the 105 applicants, there is a similar story in terms of success using the SFG platform:
All Other Applicants (105)
| May 4, 2022 | May 5, 2021 | % Difference | |
| University of Guelph | 6,452 | 5,548 | 16% |
| Lakehead University | 1,742 | 1,586 | 10% |
| Western University – King’s | 1,166 | 1,071 | 9% |
| Ontario Tech University | 2,948 | 2,732 | 8% |
| University of Windsor | 2,992 | 2,784 | 8% |
| University of Ottawa | 28,192 | 26,560 | 6% |
| Wilfrid Laurier University | 4,950 | 4,724 | 5% |
| OCAD University | 1,709 | 1,649 | 4% |
| University of Waterloo | 22,648 | 21,922 | 3% |
| Trent University | 3,046 | 2,952 | 3% |
Honourable mention to the Université de l’Ontario français, and Laurentian University-Hearst. They ranked 1 and 2 in this list, but as they both had fewer than 100 applications, we excluded them from this discussion.
To summarize, it looks like students are back — especially secondary students whose numbers had actually decreased in 2020. But recruiting may be getting more competitive — students are considering more programs and schools.
I hope this is helpful, and for those interested, the application data is updated monthly until August at https://www.ouac.on.ca/statistics/ugrad-application-statistics/.
And the confirmation data will be available in June at https://www.ouac.on.ca/statistics/ugrad-confirmation-statistics/.
Happy recruiting!
Further Reading
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