St. Clair College expanding program pauses as enrolment drops

More programs are being paused at St Clair College. CTV’s Travis Fortnum explains why.

St. Clair College has announced it will pause enrolment in a total of 21 programs this fall, up from 18 last year.

College president Michael Silvaggi warned in Dec. 2025 that further program suspensions were possible after fall 2025 enrolment was down a reported 23 per cent.

Enrolment at its Windsor and Chatham campuses dropped from 12,235 to 9,383 students, with a nearly 3,000-student decline in international enrolment.

Speaking on AM800’s The Kyle Horner Show, Silvaggi said early data showed the demand for certain programs just wasn’t there.

“We chose to put a pause on 21 programs that were open for application as early as late October, early November, and when we looked at the data we just did not have enough applications, enough student interest that would allow us to run these programs in a sustainable matter,” he said.

The three new suspended programs include paramedic at the Chatham campus, greenhouse technician, and horticulture landscaping.

Previous programs include power engineering, fashion design, journalism, and general business.

Silvaggi said pausing intake allows them to refresh programs and determine if any changes are needed.

“These programs are not cancelled forever. We may find ourselves running programs. For example, last year we put a pause on dental assisting for one year, and this year we have it running. That’s a great example,” he said.

Canada’s immigration minister has capped student visa applications for 2026 at just under 310,000, with about half being admitted.

Silvaggi said that will continue to impact future budgets.

“Predominately we are going to be a domestic school. We do know that 90 per cent of our students from within our catchment, which makes us a pillar in this community and certainly something that we’re very proud of,” he said.

Silvaggi said right they’re currently projecting an enrolment of 8,500 students for fall 2026.