Bermuda College is bracing itself for one of its largest intakes of freshmen this year - with 400 senior school students expected to enrol for classes.

President Dr. Michael Orenduff said if it was not the record intake, it would be close, with a high number of students expressing interest in the college, the majority from CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute.

Last year, the college had no freshman as both public secondary schools had an extra fourth year added to their curriculum, resulting in no graduates.

That left the college under-utilised during the day, but an increase in evening and business-related classes boosted numbers and helped to balance out the shortfall.

However, Dr. Orenduff said even though the expected enrolment for this August was high, it would be one more year before the college really benefited - when it had both second year and first year students.

"In the fall of 2004, I think we will have the largest enrolment in the college history," said Dr. Orenduff.

"We seem to be getting a lot of art, business and technical interest, and I think we will see the enrolment in culinary going up, as well.

"But on top of that, a lot of students just want a higher general education, so it will be right across the board."

Dr. Orenduff joined the college two years ago with the aim of turning it around and making it more responsive to the needs of the community.

He has one year left, and in that time a new president must be found.

But he said there was still much to do for the next 12 months.

"I'm very excited for the next year. It's going to be neat having freshmen again. It looks like we are getting around 400 coming in, which is very good, and it will possibly be more.

"That has to be close to our record freshmen enrolment.

"But we have been visiting the schools and encouraging the students to stay on, and it seems many of them want to."

But the president said new life would also be injected into the campus of the college in a bid to make it more attractive and lively for students.

Dr. Orenduff said a number of changes were to take place over the coming months to create a better student social scene.

"We want to create more of a campus environment, so the students all hang around much more," said Dr. Orenduff.

"We have hired a new person to encourage the students in extra-curricula activity, such as launching a student newspaper and putting on more plays and drama events.

"And we are planning to have a sidewalk cafe, with tables and what have you, in the quad, where food will be on sale. It will create a more sociable atmosphere and student scene.

"And we may even have bands playing on Friday afternoons."