Colleges, universities join forces in one-stop resource to attract students to N.B.

Faced with an overall decline in enrolment, eight New Brunswick post-secondary schools have joined in a one-website-serves-all resourcefor students thinking about studying in the province.

Called Study NB,the program announced Wednesday provides access to the schools andtheir academic offerings, alongwith details about financial aid, student housing and New Brunswick itself.

The goal is to make it easier for people to figure out which schools and programs might best serve their interests, and to present New Brunswick as an appealing place to get a higher education, promoters say.

"Everyone realized that it would help increase student enrolment overall, and then everybody wins," said Ronnie Stewart, manager of Study NB.

The schools taking part in Study NB are Collge communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, Mount Allison University, New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, New Brunswick Community College, St. Thomas University, Universit de Moncton, University of New Brunswick and Maritime College of Forest Technology.

The site also includes links to tourism information, so that people can see what living in New Brunswick may be like, Stewart said.

Visitors to the site can type in what field of study they are interested in, andavailable programs from the eight universities and colleges will pop up,he said.

"Having a resource available that really spelled out all the options in one place and gave me a sense of what it would be like as a student, that would have really helped me, you know, find the answer faster," he said.

There is information for various target groups, including international students, who have different needs than domestic students, he said.

Nauman Farooqi, president and vice-chancellor of St. Thomas University, called Study NB "an exciting initiative" and said he looks forward to working with other schools to bring people to New Brunswick, not only as students but as people who may eventually settle down in the province.

Study NB aims to increase international enrolmentin the province, but international students often face higher costs than domestic students.

Farooqi said affordability is an issue, so Study NB will help students more easily weigh their options to determine the best fit.St. Thomas University, for instance, has lower tuition thanother schools in the province and in Canada.

Sydona Chandon, executive director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, said that the website will help a lot of students.

"This is a really good program," she said. "The website is needed for students, because we've often heard that students find it hard sometimes accessing education or post secondary education within New Brunswick.

"And this is an important piece to that, being able to find everything in one central location."

Arlene Dunn, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour, said the province would finance the first year of the Study NB program

"I think it's a great opportunity for us to work with the respective public institutions that are part of this collaborative," she said, "in terms of really drawing in those international students, and also domestic students, and also keeping the studentsthat are herein New Brunswick in the province."