Price slashing is common in the cutthroat world of retail sales. But in higher education? It’s happening on the eastern coast of Canada.

Facing a declining college-age population and thus a sea of potentially empty seats, most universities there are dangling lower price tags to lure students from other parts of the country. Universities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have slashed their tuition by 23 percent since 2001 to attract students, the Ottawa Citizen says. New Brunswick is only Atlantic province to raise tuition recently.

Price cutting is just one of several measures the universities are using to attract students. This year a number of eastern universities, which include some of the highest-ranked small institutions in the country, sent recruiters out west to look for students.

According to the Association of Atlantic Universities, enrollments among member institutions are 2.5 percent lower than last year. And shifting regional demographics will hit hard over the next decade. Meanwhile, enrollments are expected to grow in other parts of Canada. Most of that growth is likely to take place in Ontario.

Canada’s eastern universities aren’t content to recruit only in their home country, according to The Chronicle Herald, a Nova Scotia newspaper. Last Thursday, Colin Dodds, president of Saint Mary’s University and vice chairman of the Association of Atlantic Universities, told the Canadian House of Commons finance committee that the region’s 17 universities hoped to recruit more international students as well. —Karen Birchard