A Canadian university enjoyed its largest ever turnout on the island when it held a recruitment drive last week.

The event hosted by Mount Saint Vincent University on Thursday attracted about 70 people to the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

Potential students received a presentation on what is offered at the school, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and had the chance to meet some of the school’s 500 Bermudian alumni.

Joël Dickinson, the president and vice-chancellor of the university, said: “I think it’s amazing that we had so many people show up.

“It’s an indicator that the people who went to Mount Saint Vincent University formed a community.”

Dr Dickinson said that earlier drives on the island were attended by about 60 people.

She said that the university did not send recruiters to Bermuda during the Covid-19 pandemic and that their first post-pandemic pop-up happened last year.

Despite this, the show of interest this year, according to Dr Dickinson, demonstrated that it did not take long to rekindle community connections.

She added: “I think to see that community grow again and to see people come in and see people they knew 35 or 40 years ago and just instantly reconnect like it was yesterday is amazing.”

Mount Saint Vincent University has had connections in Bermuda for decades.

Dr Dickinson said that many Bermudian students found comfort in the university’s small classes, which were comparable to Bermuda’s high-school class sizes.

She added that the “intimate” environment allowed students and teachers to become comfortable and build a strong sense of community.

Dr Dickinson said: “There was one parent here tonight who was a little afraid of their child being a little bit young. But when we talk about the supports and that we have an average class size of 20, I think it gives that sense of security that people are going to notice if something’s going wrong.”

She added: “We have about 70 countries represented at Mount Saint Vincent.

“We look at international students as a way to enhance the classroom experience for everybody involved.

“We don’t just learn from the professors at [the university], we also learn from the students and so as each student brings their different perspectives, the other students in the class learn from that too.”

D’anaez Swan, a 17-year-old pupil of The Berkeley Institute, said that she came from a family of Mount Saint Vincent alumni — and that the pop-up’s presentation convinced her to study there as well.

She is looking forward to travelling abroad and building a career in criminal psychotherapy.

The teenager said: “Canada’s a place that I’ve always wanted to go and, come on now, it’s cheap, so it just very much intrigued me.”

Thomasina Hassell graduated from the university in 1990 and said it was nice to see so many young people show interest in its programmes.

The high-school teacher of 35 years said that the university’s Bermudian community included plenty of “dynamic” educators.

Ms Hassell said: “Mount Saint Vincent’s programmes are fully comprehensive and when you graduate you’re graduating with some serious skills.”

Talks are under way between the university and the Bermuda College to allow more students to start the first two years of their degree at the college before finishing at the university.

The option exists for several programmes, such as business and tourism, but Dr Dickinson said that university wanted to expand this option to more programmes.