Enrolment is once again up at the University of Regina.

A 1.7% increase in enrolment from this time last year. Official numbers will be known at the end of the fourth week of classes coming up in early October.

President Thomas Chase says seeing this increase was a major effort from the university’s staff.

“We’ve had teams of student advisors, enrolment specialists, professors and instructors reaching out to students over the summer months encouraging them and enabling them to enrol in classes this fall,” Chase said. “We have a healthy number of returning students to the university, so we’re very glad to see this despite the fact we are in a global pandemic.”

Chase says it was previously announced that all classes would be online this semester.

“We have an extremely small number of in-person, studio and lab classes limited to 15 students or fewer,” Chase said. “The total number of students on campus will be very small and the vast majority of courses will be delivered remotely.”

For students coming in from out-of-town for these in-person classes, Chase says there are 300 residential dorms available, which is less than 20% compared to normal.

Chase says returning international student numbers remain healthy despite the pandemic.

“What we have seen is a pretty steep decline in new international students for obvious reasons, the difficulty of arranging travel, the ability to get into the country,” Chase said. “The wish from the part of many international students (is to) have that on-campus experience.

“We’re hopeful once that the pandemic passes and a vaccine is available, those new international (student) numbers will return.”

This makes 12 straight years of enrolment growth at the U of R. Credit hours are also up by 1.2%.