Latest news with #tuitionincrease
CTV News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
UPEI approves budget and tuition increases for 2025-26 academic year
The Board of Governors at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) approved an operating budget that increased by more than $20 million over the previous fiscal year, said a news release from the university. The board announced a 2025-26 operating budget just under $202.9 million – an increase of 11.2 per cent – on Tuesday, despite financial challenges caused by changes to federal immigration policy, said the release. 'We are at a particular time in the history of the University where, in addition to the typical budget pressures like inflation, we are being challenged by federal immigration policies, which have negatively affected universities across the country,' said Dr. Wendy Rodgers, UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor. UPEI said it has been significantly impacted by caps on international students implemented by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in 2024. International enrolment of first-year students has declined by approximately 50 per cent and is projected to decline further in 2025-26, said the release. The university said it focused on short and long-term strategies including a 3.5 per cent increase to the province's core operating grant and tuition increases to address the loss of revenue without restrictions or reductions. Tuition for domestic students will increase by 6.5 per cent for the 2025-26 academic year but the university still has the lowest fees in the region, said the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission. Domestic students will pay $46 dollars more per 3-semester-hour credit course or $460 for a full-time student with a full courseload under the new budget. Tuition for international students will increase by 7.5 per cent, or $630 for full-time, undergraduate students. A portion of fees will fund and emergency bursary for international students. 'Through budget strategies developed collaboratively and transparently with University leaders, and with support from the Government of Prince Edward Island, we have achieved a balanced budget for 2025–2026,' said Vice-President Tim Walker. For more P.E.I. news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
UPEI hikes tuition by 6.5% for Canadians, 7.5% for international students this fall
Social Sharing The University of Prince Edward Island is increasing tuition fees in the face of falling international enrolments, with the hike being more significant than last year's for both domestic and international students. UPEI's board of governors approved a $202.9-million operating budget for the 2025–2026 fiscal year on Tuesday, with spending up about 11 per cent compared to the last budget. To make the numbers work, the university is raising tuition fees by 6.5 per cent for Canadian students and 7.5 per cent for international students, starting in the fall semester. Last year, the increase was five per cent across the board for all students. The Charlottetown-based university is pointing to a reduction in international students as one of its major financial challenges. First-year international enrolments fell by roughly 50 per cent in 2024–25, costing the institution about $3 million. That trend is expected to continue in 2025–26, with an additional drop of $3 million projected. Tim Walker, UPEI's vice-president of administration and finance, said declining international enrolments and rising costs due to inflation contributed to the decision to raise tuition. "We went to our government partners, who've been very generous, but they are also subject to financial constraint. We looked at all kinds of cost-containment measures. We were successful in containing a lot of costs and bringing down that normal inflation, but there was still a gap," Walker told CBC News. "So, we had to look at the student tuitions with a fresh eye." Walker said that for an average undergraduate student taking 10 courses, the tuition increase will amount to about $460. Financial pressures seen across the country Gabriel Miller, president and CEO of Universities Canada, said UPEI is not alone in facing a money crunch. Many universities across the country are under growing financial pressure due to two key factors, one of which is declining government investment over the past 10 years. "For more than a decade, governments in Canada, both federally and provincially, simply haven't been holding up their end of the bargain when it comes to helping students get a university education," Miller said. To fill that funding gap, universities have been relying on recruiting international students, who bring in more revenue per person. But recent federal reductions to the number of international student permits have created significant budgetary challenges for institutions across Canada. "Both of these factors now have caused a growing financial crisis on campus," Miller said. And so institutions are being forced to make difficult decisions, including raising tuition fees, to reduce deficits while trying to protect the quality of education. Looking ahead, Miller said he hopes Ottawa will fix the immigration system and attract top international talent again — something he said would boost the economy, create jobs and support institutions financially. He also called for stronger provincial investment in post-secondary education. "We need serious, sustained commitments for provinces to make sure that their universities have sustained funding to complement what students and their families are investing themselves." No layoffs or program cuts at UPEI Despite the financial strain, Walker said the university has no plans to lay off staff or shut down academic programs, as Prince Edward Island's other major post-secondary did recently. Holland College said it had no choice given an 83 per cent decrease in its foreign enrolment. But Walker did say the Charlottetown-based university can conduct a "curriculum cohesion review," which involves strategically examining courses, including low-enrolment ones, and possibly redeploying academic resources. Walker said students from Prince Edward Island can also get support through the George Coles Bursary, which increased from $3,200 to $3,500 this year, an amount he said outpaces the amount of the tuition hike. "So essentially, two-thirds of that impact that we are actually putting into our fee is going to be recouped by the increase in the George Coles Bursary," Walker said. For international students, Walker said about one per cent of revenue UPEI earns from the fee increase, which is estimated at between $175,000 and $200,000, is being earmarked for financial-need bursaries for students facing a financial pinch during the school year. "We are not really concerned on the competitiveness front. What we are concerned about is how the students perceive it and how they feel about it, and that's why we put these measures in place," Walker said. 'We're losing talent, we are losing skills' Wasiimah Joomun, executive director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which includes UPEI's student union, said rising tuition costs will limit access to education and reduce the country's ability to build a diverse and skilled workforce. "We're losing talent, we are losing skills, and we are losing that return of investment from this population of Canadians," Joomun said. Mary Feltham, national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, said the news from UPEI is concerning and reflects a broader trend across Canada. "Education is a right, and it is very important that these public post-secondary educational institutes act as a service rather than a business," Feltham said.
CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Why the federal cap on international students has hit Alberta — even though it still has room
Social Sharing Back in 2020, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology launched a five-year plan that centred largely around boosting its ranks of international students. "Our roots are in Calgary, our ambition is global: to bring more of the world to SAIT," the document reads. By that measure, the plan has been an overwhelming success. The 2023-24 school year saw a record number of international students attend SAIT, far outstripping even what the polytechnic institute had expected. The influx of international students — whose tuition is often double, triple or even quadruple that of Canadian students taking the same courses — brought with it a major revenue boost. International tuition at SAIT totalled $132 million for the year, marking an 81 per cent increase from the year before. (Domestic tuition was up as well, but by a relatively modest 12 per cent, to $78 million.) And while SAIT has seen the largest increase in international students, it's far from alone in this trend. There were nearly 30,000 more international students enrolled at Alberta post-secondary institutions in 2023-24 than there were a decade prior, according to provincial data. Community colleges and polytechnic institutions account for nearly three-quarters of that increase. (SAIT, alone, accounts for 20 per cent.) In early January 2024, however, things started to change. That's when the federal government announced a two-year cap on international study permits. The move was described as targeting "bad actors," particularly in Ontario, where the provincial minister responsible for colleges and universities expressed concern that some institutions were "taking advantage" of international students "with false promises of guaranteed employment, residency and Canadian citizenship." It also came amid concern over the effect international students were having on the housing market. These concerns were particularly acute in Ontario, which had nearly 10 times as many international study-permit holders as Alberta at the end of 2023, and in British Columbia, which had more than triple Alberta's numbers. Given the way the new federal rules allocated study permits to each province, however, Alberta was actually allowed to admit more international students in 2024 than it had in 2023, while the number of newly issued permits in Ontario and B.C. was curtailed. The allocation for Alberta was boosted again for 2025. In other words, while Ontario and B.C. are bumping up against the federal cap, Alberta still has room. Yet while it could welcome more international students than ever before, the number of new study permits that took effect in 2024 actually declined by about 10 per cent compared with the previous year. Leaders of Alberta post-secondary institutions say they've seen even bigger declines in study-permit applications in 2025, as they believe the new federal rules have discouraged many would-be international students from even applying. And, they say, the implications for institutions that have come to rely on these students could be significant. 'No longer welcoming' Pablo Ortiz, dean of students at Alberta University of the Arts, says international applications at his institution are down 26 per cent since the federal cap was announced, and actual admissions of international students are down 30 per cent. The university has not hit its cap and could admit more students — if it could find them — but he says the new federal rules have had a chilling effect on prospective applicants in other countries, who have interpreted them as a sea change in the way Canada views foreign students. "Basically, what we're saying [as a country] is that we're no longer welcoming of international students," he said. "That's the message that everybody, at least, is reading abroad." As a smaller institution, AUArts could be significantly affected by the loss of international students, according to Ortiz. "Some programs that relied heavily on international student enrolment might see reduced offerings or even discontinuation," he said. Calgary's Bow Valley College is much larger, with an international student body that measures in the thousands. But it, too, has been affected. Under the federal rules, it was allowed to provide roughly 2,400 provincial attestation letters last year, which are required documents for most study-permit applicants, confirming they have been assigned a place to study at a particular school. But Bow Valley wasn't able to meet that threshold, said Kara Sayers, dean of enrolment management and registrar, falling about 10 per cent short. "And we enrolled far fewer students than that at the end of the day, because you lose them at other points in time along the process," she said. The loss of tuition revenue can have far-reaching implications, she added. "When you're looking at the financial sustainability or viability of a program, and you don't have that international tuition to offset it, I think there are vulnerabilities that come in," she said. "And it isn't necessarily just programs that have a lot of international students, but all of this gets intertwined for an institution." 'Competitive environment' At The King's University, a small Christian institution in Edmonton, international applications are down 34 per cent. President Melanie Humphreys says it's a "competitive environment" in terms of global recruitment, and prospective students are looking elsewhere after the federal government introduced the cap, along with additional paperwork and rule changes that make coming to Canada more challenging. "If Australia or the U.K. or some other country replies sooner in terms of guaranteeing them of a visa, then that's where they go and that's where the talent goes," she said. Humphreys, who also serves as chair of the Alberta Post-Secondary Network, described the federal cap and associated changes as a "sledgehammer" policy that was largely aimed at a handful of Ontario institutions that were seen to be taking advantage of the study-permit system but is catching Alberta colleges and universities in its wake. "From the very beginning, Alberta actually has been a responsible player," she said. The two-year cap on study permits expires at the end of this year and she'd like to see "a far more surgical approach" from the federal government in 2026. Gabriel Miller, president and CEO of Universities Canada, had a similar view. "What we saw was a series of rapid-fire, blunt policy decisions by the previous federal government that sent a message to the world that Canada wasn't as interested in being a premier destination for the most talented people in the world," he said. "And the rest of the world got that message. And so we've seen a drop in the number of people applying to come here. And we've seen a drop in enrolments." 'There's education and there's edu-business' At SAIT, which has seen the largest growth in international students over the past decade in Alberta, teaching staff are now bracing for a decline. They're also anticipating job losses — particularly among those who aren't members of the full-time, permanent faculty. "We were notified that there was potentially some layoffs," said Blair Howes, president of the SAIT Academic Faculty Association. He said the union hasn't yet received official notice of specific layoffs from SAIT but it's expected some positions will be discontinued. "They have indicated that some of the casual positions and temporary salary ones were likely not to be renewed for the upcoming, next semester." SAIT president David Ross declined to be interviewed for this story. The Calgary-based institution recently informed teaching staff that its photojournalism major would be discontinued in September due to reduced international enrolment. Overall, however, Howes said there's not as much "doom and gloom" among SAIT faculty as perhaps there is at some Ontario institutions, where international student enrolment has seen much more drastic declines. He credited SAIT for handling its expansion of international student enrolment "fairly well," especially compared with how some other institutions in the country have approached it. "I do think that for some of the smaller organizations and institutions, it was pretty much a greed-motivated cash cow, for lack of better words," he said. At the same time, he also believes many institutions, including SAIT, have been forced to look for additional revenue streams due to years of government funding cuts, and boosting international student enrolment has provided an enticing solution. "There's education and there's edu-business, and the two sort of meld together," Howes said. "I would say that, in some cases, that was a forced initiative. I mean, if you're not going to fund post-secondary the way you funded it 10 years ago, but here's the opportunity: you can make up your shortfall by increasing foreign tuition."
