trends-2011-vol1-enrolment-e

In addition to those registered in foreign universities, a growing
number of students are pursuing study abroad experiences with
credits accumulating at their Canadian university. In 1997, roughly
one percent of full-time students enrolled in Canadian universities
were participating in some kind of study abroad experience. By
2005-2006, AUCC estimates indicated that there had been some
growth, and more than two percent of Canadian students were
participating in a study abroad experience.
Aboriginal students
Information about Aboriginal Canadians enrolled on university
campuses comes from a variety of sources, as there is no single
group which gathers comprehensive information about Aboriginal
students. Using data from the Canadian University Survey Consortium
(CUSC), 10 AUCC estimates that there are between 20,000 and
25,000 Aboriginal students in Canadian universities, and that the
number of Aboriginal students has been growing at the same rate
as overall student numbers over much of the last decade. In 2002,
Aboriginal students represented approximately three percent of
all undergraduate students, a share they have maintained since 2002.
Given the lack of comprehensive information, AUCC is unable to
describe all the characteristics of the Aboriginal university student
body in detail. However, Census data does provide some useful
information about the educational profile of Aboriginal Canadians.
In 2006, less than eight percent of Aboriginal Canadians between
the ages of 25 and 64 – or 43,000 university graduates – had a
university degree. Within this group, 36,000 Aboriginal Canadians
have undergraduate or professional degrees, of which 65 percent
are women. Approximately 5,800 Aboriginal Canadians have a
master’s degree and 1,100 have a doctoral degree. Fifty-five percent
of Aboriginal Canadians with a master’s degree are women and
48 percent of Aboriginal PhD graduates are women. A strong
majority of Aboriginal students have studied in education, social
and behavioural sciences and business.
Table 1 demonstrates the growth in attainment rates for Aboriginal
Canadians compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians over the 25-year
period from 1981 to 2006. In 1981, only two percent of Aboriginal
Canadians aged 25-to-64 had a university degree, compared to
8.1 percent of non-Aboriginal Canadians of the same age. During
the next 25 years, the attainment rate of Aboriginal Canadians
increased to 7.7 percent, while the attainment rate for non-Aboriginals
increased to 23.4 percent, generating a larger gap in attainment rates
between Aboriginal Canadians and non-Aboriginal Canadians.
TABLE 1: The gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal university
attainment rates is widening
Proportion of the population with a university degree
Year Aboriginal Non-Aboriginal
1981 2% 8.1%
1991 2.6% 11.6%
1996 4.2% 15.5%
2001 5.9% 20.1%
2006 7.7% 23.4%
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census
AUCC
Trends in Higher Education | Volume 1. Enrolment | 19