GTA students heading to Sudbury's Laurentian University

Students from the Greater Toronto area represent a third of the first-year enrolment to Laurentian University this year, and the director of student enrolment says it looks like that number will continue to climb.

"We’ve really made a lot of headway," Justin Lemieux said.

"We’ve doubled our numbers in the GTA since 2009."

Part of the reason for the growing interest from the GTA is that some schools in southern Ontario are too full in certain programs, he said.

Lemieux also said Laurentian has become more aggressive about recruitment, which he said is not only good for the school but good for Sudbury.

"We have all these students living in residence or [the] downtown core," he said.

"Then [they are] spending some of their income or their money towards restaurants, entertainment, those kinds of things in our city."

Enrolment numbers at Laurentian University won’t be firm until about late September.

The fall semester at Laurentian begins next Wednesday.