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'On the right track': Enrolment up at Yukon College

Yukon College officials are giving themselves top marks for attracting more students, from Yukon and from overseas.

Officials say enrolment is up 9 per cent this year, after years of stable numbers

Yukon College's Ayamdigut Campus in Whitehorse. (Paul Tukker/CBC)

Yukon College officials are giving themselves top marks for attracting more students.

The college says enrolment is up nine per cent this year, after years of stable numbers. That's 67 additional students, bringing the total student body to 794. 

Deb Bartlette, the college's vice president for academic and student services, says the boost shows the college is "providing programming that's meeting the needs of what students in the Yukon, and prospective students in the Yukon, are looking for.

"I think it shows that we're on the right track."

The number of international students at the college is also up. There are now almost 70, most of them from Asia, but others are from Europe, Morocco, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nigeria, and Mexico.

Bartlette says students are drawn to the territory as an attractive place to study. 

"They like the blue sky, and northern lights, and snow, and going outside," she said. "But many of them are coming here to improve their language and get that international experience in an environment that is very good to do that."

She says many international students like the small campus, and find it easy to adapt.

"They're able to get a very high quality cultural/academic experience here."