THUNDER BAY - Lakehead University continues to lead the way in research and innovation, despite struggling with changing demographics in the region leading to lower than expected enrolment.
The university celebrated entrepreneurship and innovation during its report to the community luncheon Wednesday. University president and vice-chancellor, Brian Stevenson, said the school has a lot of accomplishments to celebrate this year, including being named Canada’s No. 1 research university by Re$earch Infosource.
“We’ve always done really well in research, certainly recent, but to be the number one in our category is a big win for us,” Stevenson said.
The business program at Lakehead also received an Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation, which only five per cent of business schools around the world have earned.
“It really is a major accomplishment for our business school,” Stevenson said. “It shows us that we are at an international level.”
According to the 2015/16 annual report, the university has a $319 million economic impact on the city of Thunder Bay. Stevenson said part of the university’s success is based on the support it receives from the community.
“People are very supportive of the university,” he said. “We have hired a great faculty that have helped us with the research and the work that we do. The business accreditation and research has a lot to do with our faculty.”
Despite the successes from last year, Lakehead continues to struggle with declining enrolment numbers.
The university has seen enrolment decline for the last five years, with the biggest loss of students coming last year when enrolment dropped from 8,526 to 8,058.
“Last year we were down quite a bit because the government changed the rules around education,” Stevenson explained. “We are beginning to move up. Up to that point, all the programs have been increasing except for education and this year we are seeing a slight increase in most of the programs. The numbers are a little bit better than what we were expecting, but still below where we were last year.”
Stevenson added changing demographics in Northern Ontario is causing declining enrolment at all post-secondary institutions throughout the region.
“We are losing a small number of students for the last five or six years,” he said. “We have more or less replaced all them with international students, which is why we have such a big international strategy. Last year we lost students because there was a program cut and we’ve more or less begun to replace those students.”
Sasha Bubon, a third year PhD student in chemistry, and research physicist with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute, is one of many international students at Lakehead University. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, Bubon is developing a positron emission tomography scanner.
The positron emission tomography scanner has gone from concept to the building of a functional prototype. The scanner will be used to detect breast cancer and Bubon hopes to bring it to market by 2018.
Bubon has been working on the device for the past four years and he said Lakehead University offered him the perfect mix of applied science, engineering, and entrepreneurship that he was looking for.
“When I was at the intersection of where to do my PhD, none of the other universities were offering my entrepreneurship thing I am doing now,” he said. “Here we have the idea and there are a lot of people to support it and work towards this idea. When we started this entrepreneurship, I am the founder, not just a person observing from the outside and doing the work, I actually own the business and it’s my own joint venture with Lakehead University and research institute and other founders.”
Matt Pearson, co-owner and operator of Sleeping Giant Brewing Company, graduated from the education program at Lakehead in 2014 and he said he owes his success to the skills and training he received at Lakehead.
“You can take those skills and tools and apply them in so many different areas,” he said. “I think business leadership and business management, it’s really applicable. I think the environment sets itself apart. I really believe the uniqueness of the Lakehead product is its location and its environment and its connection to the surrounding town.”
Stevenson is confident Lakehead will continue to excel in the areas of research and innovation. He is expecting a three to four year recovery period for enrolment numbers to return to peak levels. Full enrolment numbers for the 2016/17 year will be released in December.
“After 50 years, this is a university that is really coming into its own,” Stevenson said. “We are now a fully comprehensive university with programs that are there for northwestern Ontario. I think those are some of the reasons we are doing so well.”
