B.C.'s Kwantlen Polytechnic University lays off 70 faculty members
Provost says university is projecting a decline of $49 million in international tuition and fee revenue
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) says it will be issuing full or partial layoff notices to approximately 70 faculty members amid a downturn in international admission fees.
KPU said Monday that the layoff notices would go out at the end of the week.
The layoffs come as Canadian colleges and universities continue to grapple with the federal government issuing fewer international student permits.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced last year that it would reduce the intake of foreign students over the next two years, including graduate and doctoral students, as well as tightening the eligibility for the Post-Graduate Work Permit program.
A researcher at the University of British Columbia (UBC) says more and more universities rely on international tuition fees to make up for declining provincial funding, and Canada's higher education now faces a turning point as international students who pay higher fees are not coming in the same numbers.
KPU provost and vice-president of academics Diane Purvey says the university is projecting that revenue from international tuition and fees will decline by $49 million over the 2026 fiscal year.
"We have been starved in terms of our funding and we were encouraged to look to international students to diversify our student population," she told CBC News.
"And now with the collapse of the international revenue, through the policy decisions of the federal government, we're struggling."
Purvey says 1,500 fewer international students are expected at the university in the next fiscal year, which starts April 1, on top of 2,000 fewer students this fiscal year.
The layoffs are mostly expected in the arts faculty and business school, the provost said, adding that it is also reducing overtime and reviewing new hires and discretionary spending.
KPU has over 20,000 students, according to its website, spread across five campuses in the Metro Vancouver suburbs of Surrey, Langley and Richmond.
It is among the largest universities in B.C. to announce layoffs due to international student cuts, which have sent shockwaves through Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Other B.C. universities contacted by CBC News — including the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and the University of the Fraser Valley — said they were also affected by the cuts and they were looking at a downturn in revenue. None of them, however, said they were laying off faculty.
"While layoffs are one of many options, we hope to mitigate this with other actions such as stricter controls on discretionary spending, pausing projects, and reviewing posting of vacant positions," said Tally Bains, Capilano University's vice-president of finance and administration, in a statement.
Reckoning in higher education sector
Lisa Brunner, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UBC Centre for Migration Studies, says Canada's higher education sector is at a crossroads.
"I think it's unfortunate because international student tuition has basically covered up stagnant or declining government funding for some decades," she said.
"As Canadians, we have to really think about who is responsible for funding higher education. What is the value of it to our society? Do we really want to pay for it or do we want to continue relying on international students to supplement that cost?"
An IRCC spokesperson said the cap on study permits was necessary to reduce the overall temporary resident population, something the government has committed to doing over the next few years.
"The annual growth in the number of international students couldn't be sustained while ensuring students receive the support they need," the spokesperson said.
The B.C. government says it has increased operating grants for public post-secondary institutions every year since 2017.
"The ministry is working closely with all post-secondary institutions as they work to manage their operations and budgets," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education.
With files from Renée Lukacs