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The College of Victoria (UVic) has introduced funds cuts for the 2024/2025 12 months, with the varsity largely naming a dip in worldwide pupil enrolment because the trigger.
UVic says it’s slashing its operating budget by 4 per cent, which is roughly $13 million.
Final 12 months, the college additionally noticed funds cuts of about $17 million, with a big distinction being that final 12 months the varsity reduce its funds across the board by four per cent, whereas this 12 months it’s only lowering its “working funds” by 4 per cent.
The college says a decline in worldwide college students has continued 12 months over 12 months, which is hard information for an establishment that depends on overseas pupil tuition, which is 4 to 5 instances larger than home faculty prices.
“Whereas our home and graduate enrolments are wholesome, our worldwide undergraduate enrolment is the bottom it has been in over 10 years, at 11 per cent of general enrolment,” mentioned the varsity in a launch Wednesday.
Anticipated layoffs
The college says that whereas staff will nonetheless get their common wage will increase as per their respective collective agreements, some employees might be laid off.
“Given the scale of the mandatory funds reduce, sadly employees reductions might be unavoidable in some areas,” mentioned the college.
“We’ll guarantee affected staff are supported and that collective agreements are adopted.”
The college says it’s engaged on “minimizing disruptions to college students,” nevertheless, and is targeted on supporting the varsity’s core values of training and analysis.
All scholarships and analysis grants – in addition to ancillary companies like baby care and housing companies – will even be spared from the chopping block.
Ottawa’s affect on B.C. college students
In January, the federal authorities introduced there could be a cap on new student visas for the next two years in an effort to decelerate stress on Canada’s housing market.
The cap for 2024 is 364,000 new pupil visas, down greater than a 3rd in comparison with the almost 560,000 issued final 12 months. The particular cap for subsequent 12 months has not been set but.
Whereas UVic says its worldwide pupil enrolment was “already trending downwards,” the federal authorities’s new coverage is probably going “impacting our utility numbers.”
The college provides that there was additionally a backlog and delays within the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada system in 2022 and 2023 – leaving some college students with out examine permits even when they had been ready to come back to Canada – and says there was elevated competitors globally, significantly in China and India, the place UVic beforehand attracted many worldwide college students.
“Lastly, geopolitical elements and diplomatic disputes could also be impacting worldwide curiosity,” mentioned UVic.
Transferring ahead, UVic says it’s going to diversify its recruiting efforts, provide new levels {and professional} graduate levels to attempt to appeal to new learners, and apply for extra provincial funding to assist cowl its funds.
UVic is way from the one college that’s dealing with funds cuts and adapting to a decline in worldwide pupil enrolment.
In October, Vancouver Island College mentioned it was projecting a deficit of $20.2 million for the 2024 12 months, and that it was eyeing a ten per cent funds reduce for its educational and non-academic items.
The college and then-post secondary training minister, Selina Robinson, mentioned they had been assured that the college would stay open, nevertheless.
Whereas talking at a convention Thursday morning, B.C. Premier David Eby added that he believed it was “untimely for UVic or every other faculty to be hitting the panic button but.”
-With recordsdata from The Canadian Press
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