Bermuda College this year graduated the lowest number of students in five years.

And The Royal Gazette has learned that graduate numbers have been on a steady decline.

The college has seen its number of graduates drop from 213 in 1992 to 177 in 1993, and 148 in 1994. They increased slightly last year to 155, but then dived to 126 this year.

Yesterday, college president Dr. George Cook said the college was investigating the cause for the declining number of graduates.

However, he said initial analysis showed that the decline was due to a drop in graduates from the General Studies Certificate programme.

And while he did not have the statistics on graduates from that programme, Dr.

Cook said it attracted the most students.

The programme, designed for students who are "marginally'' qualified to eventually enter an associate degree programme, accounts for some 20 percent of the college's enrolment.

"That is not unusual for a community college,'' Dr. Cook pointed out. "Fifty percent of those people who go in that programme have conditions attached to it. They have to do more than is required of a 30-credit programme.'' But he said more students in the General Studies Certificate programme were opting to take less courses during a term.

"They are doing three to four courses because more and more of them are working so it takes them longer to graduate,'' Dr. Cook explained. "More students are also taking a break for a semester or a year. And some simply will not come back.

"We do find that this is an increasing phenomena. We're getting more and more like the US. We're also getting more part-time and adult students during the day.'' However, he noted that the college's number of full-time students had not changed drastically over the past 20 years.

"Enrolment has been more or less about 500,'' Dr. Cook said. "But students have shifted from the services and technical areas to business programmes.'' He recalled that the services and technical programmes accounted for 60 percent of student enrolment in 1976.

Today, he added, roughly 20 percent of the students were enrolled in those programmes. Meanwhile enrolment figures in Arts and Sciences had jumped from about 20 percent to more than 50 percent.

"To me that is a reflection of social change taking place,'' Dr. Cook said.

"Students are going where they think the future holds out for them. It's a desire for fundamental upward mobility (in the job market).

Meanwhile The Royal Gazette also understands that the college will see a decline in full-time staff.

About a dozen of its 135 full-time faculty members have left or plan to leave this year.

Some have decided to take early retirement, some have been replaced by Bermudians, some will be overseas on sabbaticals, and others have decided to leave for personal reasons.

Among those leaving are Registrar Sue Simmons who is taking early retirement as of Tuesday, Bursar Barbara Smith who will retire at the end of September, and vice president of academic affairs Solange Saltus who will leave the college in October.

But Dr. Cook scotched reports that there will be a major turnover of staff at the college.

"We've had five non-Bermudian faculty members replaced,'' he said. "There were also two people who were temporarily appointed and their time has ended.

Three people, a faculty member and two supporting staff members, resigned. And two faculty members and a person in the administrative area retired.'' While Dr. Cook refused to comment on the individual cases, he said: "I think it's perfectly normal.

"Don't forget that some people who retire have been here a very long time, since the place started. We've reached a new plateau and some feel it is time to move on.''