Universities across the GTA are preparing themselves for an expected enrolment increase over the next 10 years—all except Ryerson, that is.

Last week, Ryerson President Sheldon Levy told Ryerson’s student newspaper, the Eyeopener, that despite the anticipated boom the university will not make room for more undergraduates.

“We haven’t got the operating budget to do it. We haven’t got the faculty hired to do it,” Levy said.

A report released earlier this summer by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada predicts national university enrolment will grow by 70,000 to 150,000 full-time students over the next decade. The AUCC report mainly attributes the increase to a growing proportion of youth wanting to pursue post-secondary education.

According to Levy, Ryerson would need to add between 6,000 and 11,000 spaces to help accommodate the surplus.

The former polytechnic institute is already coping with a flood of applications. In 2006 it saw a 20 per cent spike in first year applicants, despite creating no additional spots.

“The good news is we’re high in demand. The bad news is we’re going to have to say no to a lot of people that deserve the opportunity,” Levy said.

However, a Statistics Canada study released in November shows that Ryerson’s stance may not be that problematic.

The study examined Canada’s changing demographics while maintaining the same rate of post-secondary participation and found that enrolment would only grow until 2013 before reversing. By 2026 enrolment rates would be nine per cent below those of 2013, due to Canada���s shirking youth population.

To help institutions and policy makers counteract this decline the study offered some hypothetical solutions.

According to StatsCan, one possible way to hike enrolment rates isto attract more students to post-secondary institutions, which would result in participation numbers closer to those of the AUCC report.

Whichever report proves to be true, Toronto- area universities will make sure that there is enough room, even if this means building a fourth university in the GTA.

Although Levy said that Ryerson will not expand at the cost of quality, the university does support the notion of a new institution