Colleges and universities in northeastern Ontario suspend programs, with sharp drop in international students

After a period of unprecedented expansion, a bust is following a boom, not in factories or in mines as is usually the case, but in classrooms and on campuses.

In the upcoming academic year, colleges and universities across northeastern Ontario are suspending programs to cope with plummeting international enrolment as stricter immigration rules take effect, and the province is preventing schools from raising tuition fees for Canadian students.

For years now, post-secondary institutions have been relying on higher international tuition to subsidize the delivery of programs for Canadian students.

However, the schools say federal policy changes capping international enrolment and limiting graduate work permits, are not only reducing the number of international students who come to Canada, they are making it less attractive.

Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie is the latest to announce changes to the way it operates to try to make its budget work.

It is expecting a 50 per cent decrease in enrolment and subsequent decrease in operating revenue from $264.6 million last year to $123.5 million for the 2025-26 academic year, and a slight uptick in Canadian students doesn't come close to covering that gap.

The decline is mainly due to the end of business graduate certificates that are no longer eligible for post grad work certificates.

Interim president Donna Rogers said Algoma University will suspend five programs with low enrolment for next year.

"We are in a situation where we cannot continue to do what we've been doing. I mean, as I said, it's not a judgment of the quality," she told the senate last week.

"It is a stark realization that if we don't start to do something then the entire university is in jeopardy."

She explained that this is not something she thought was coming a little over a year ago.

"The environment around us has changed," Rogers told the senate. "[The federal government] is literally cutting [enrolment] in half with one fell swoop, after everybody's budgets were done for last year, literally cutting half the number of international student study permits that they were going to give and then further chipping away at what was eligible for postgraduate work permits, those kinds of things."

While avoiding layoffs, the vice-president of the Algoma faculty union, Alice Ridout said that there has been a noticeable, and unsettling, decrease in the number of contracts being given to sessional instructors and last-minute cancellations of summer courses.

Many post-secondary institutions in the northeast are, for now, staving off outright layoffs by re-assigning instructors, offering early retirement incentives and not filling vacancies.

Cambrian College in Sudbury said it had to eliminate 22 positions because of a $40 million dollar drop in revenue, but worked not to layoff any workers.

It has now suspended ten academic programs for next year and is working to find spots for seven affected employees.

Most of the suspended programs were targeted because of low international enrolment.

The courses had been popular when students could apply for work permits and get jobs upon graduation, but with changes in government policy, they no longer qualify for work permits, so interest has dropped.

Neil Shyminsky, the president of OPSEU Local 655 representing faculty at Cambrian, said he's pleased there have been no layoffs, but warns no one can say what will happen next year with any certainty.

"I think that it is incredibly difficult to see more than a year into the future at this point," he said.

"We have rule changes regarding international students and the programs that they're allowed to register in being announced every few months and with a new government in place, I have to think that we should just expect more rule changes."

The president of the union local for full and part-time faculty at Northern College said he's received no notice of any terminations, but Neal McNair said there are definitely fewer professors to deliver the programs.

Northern announced in January it was facing a $6 million deficit with a projected $12 million deficit for the following year.

While Northern's budget hasn't been revealed yet, McNair said 13 professors have taken early retirement.

That's a large proportion and McNair expects that eventually the faculty complement will balance out at 70 for the school which has campuses in Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Haileybury and Moosonee.

"That would be the lowest number of full-time faculty that we've had at Northern College, certainly in my time here, which is over 22 years," he said. "So my hope is that we're able to run."

Sault College has already announced several program suspensions, and will deliver its budget in June.

President David Orazietti said everything is on the table, but is holding out hope that lobbying for increased investment in the post-secondary education sector will pay off.

"Hopefully, looking forward, the government will consider, and there have been discussions around considering, a review of the funding formula," said the former provincial cabinet minister.

Colleges and universities have been lobbying for the freeze on domestic tuition to be lifted and for more investment in the sector.

The Ontario Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, Nolan Quinn, was not available for an interview.

In a statement, a spokesperson re-iterated a recent announcement of $750 million to fund 20,500 science and technolgoy seats at colleges and universities over the next five years.

"Coupled with our historic investment of $1.3B last year, and on top of the $5B we put into the sector every year, funding for colleges and universities is higher than ever," said spokesperson Bianca Giacoboni.