About 70 faculty in the polytechnic university’s schools of business and arts will be let go
Kwantlen Polytechnic University plans to lay off about six dozen faculty members, citing a sharp decline in international student enrolment and the tuition they pay.
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“Our international tuition and fees revenue is projected to fall by $49 million in fiscal 2026,” university president Alan Davis said in an email to faculty on Tuesday in which he informed them of “around” 70 layoffs.
Those to be laid off will find out today.
Mark Diotte, president of the Kwantlen Faculty Association, was unavailable to comment on Thursday.
Davis was also unavailable, but a spokesman with KPU said the university saw a post-pandemic surge in international enrolment.
“We were already taking steps to trim that back prior to the federal government making its changes,” the spokesman said. “Sadly, that took away our ability to do it gradually.”
Ottawa will issue 437,000 study permits to foreigners in 2025, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, down from 650,000 in 2023.
Kwantlen has 1,841 employees, of which 906 are faculty, spread across its five campuses in the Lower Mainland.
Of its roughly 20,000 current students, about 6,000 (30 per cent) are international, according to the university. That number is projected to fall to 4,471 (25 per cent) for the fiscal year beginning on April 1, with overall enrolment declining to 17,627 from 19,664 (a drop of 10 per cent).
Contrast that to fiscal 2022-23 when the student population was 21,528, of which 7,967 (37 per cent) were foreigners.
In its proposed 2025-26 budget, KPU projects a 5.3-per-cent boost in provincial grants to $108.6 million, which subsidizes domestic tuitions.
The university projects international tuitions to be $70 million in the fiscal year that begins April 1, down from $119 million (a drop of 41 per cent), while domestic tuitions are projected to drop by 1.5 per cent to $37 million.
Revenue from international tuition was almost $130 million in fiscal 2023-24, compared to about $40 million from domestic tuitions.
Davis said Kwantlen is searching for ways to boost income and reduce expenditures.
“We are cutting new discretionary spending and have implemented a hiring review, where every potential job posting is scrutinized so only those positions go forward that support our strategic priorities, vision, and recruitment, and maintain operations at KPU’s reduced size.
“While we kept our promise to maintain regular faculty positions through the current academic year, the reduction in students and revenue is too steep to renew that promise in the next academic year.”
The university will offer counselling and job-search workshops, and has an employee and family assistance plan available.
Loss of revenue isn’t the only consideration regarding layoffs, according to Laurie Clancy, the vice-president of human resources at KPU.
Because Kwantlen is a “teaching” university, with little research being carried out, there is no work for faculty when classrooms are empty, she said.
The layoffs are focused in the Melville School of Business and the Faculty of Arts, where the decline in international students has been greatest.
Both faculties have courses on more than one campus.
At Simon Fraser University, Kumari Beck, president of the faculty association, said no cuts have been announced at SFU.
“But we have been told that there may be program cuts coming,” she said.
UBC did not say what the impact of fewer foreign students will be.
“Faculties and units are taking a fiscally disciplined and conservative approach to financial planning that requires prudent decision making,” a spokeswoman said.