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CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
More layoffs hit Sask Polytechnic as international student enrolment drops
Saskatchewan Polytechnic is cutting jobs for the second time this year to deal with declining tuition revenue as fewer international students come to the province for higher education. The school attributes the big drop in international enrolment to changes in Ottawa's immigration policies, including the cap on student visas. International students pay more than domestic students for the same courses. Sask Polytech recently sent layoff notices to 14 out-of-scope employees and will not fill eight vacant positions. The school also axed 27 jobs in April. "A significant decline in international student enrolment has created a substantial revenue shortfall for the 2025-26 academic year," said a Sask Polytech statement sent to CBC News. "More difficult decisions will be necessary in the months ahead." Saskatchewan Polytechnic announces layoffs The school is facing a budget shortfall of up to $15 million, according to the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Faculty Association (SPFA). "We are deeply concerned about the impact this will have on the quality of education, student support, and long-term program viability across the province," SPFA president Michelle Downton said in a statement. "For years, Saskatchewan Polytechnic has relied on international tuition revenue to bridge the gap left by stagnant or insufficient provincial funding. That model has now become unsustainable." As in April, the school did not specify what positions, departments or programs are affected by this round of layoffs. Sask Polytech has around 2,000 full-time equivalent employees across all departments and labour groups, according to its 2023-24 annual report. The Saskatchewan Polytechnic Students' Association said students are concerned, but understand the financial pressures on the school. "We believe that the institution is really trying its best to combat the situation and … that their focus is students first," association president Rosby James said. In the 2023-24 academic year, 4,327 international students were enrolled in Sask Polytech programs across its four campuses, according to the school's most recent annual report. Five years ago, that number was 1,701. But international student enrolment has been down across Saskatchewan since the federal government announced a cap on student visas in 2024. The University of Regina said earlier this year that the number of newly admitted international students declined more than 50 per cent this past winter term compared to January 2024. The University of Saskatchewan also said earlier this year that preliminary numbers suggested a 20 per cent decrease in new international students. Political reaction On Thursday, Saskatchewan's Opposition NDP said the province is under-funding Sask Polytech and post-secondary education in general. "The Sask Party should have never starved our post-secondary schools of funding, made them so dependent on international student fees," NDP critic for advanced education Tajinder Grewal said. "Tuition fees for international students is 3.5 to 4.5 times higher than domestic students. They used to provide a very critical revenue for this post-secondary institution." In a statement, the provincial government singled out the federal student visa cap for declining enrolment. "The Government of Saskatchewan has been and continues to advocate for our post-secondary institutions to the federal government on this issue," the province's statement said. The statement did not specify what the province is advocating for at the federal level.
New York Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
These Are the U.S. Universities Most Dependent on International Students
The Trump administration's threat to block Harvard from enrolling international students would remove more than a quarter of the university's student body, a share large enough to rock its campus and, potentially, its tuition revenue. The move, frozen within 24 hours on Friday by a federal judge, also highlights the risk other universities face from an administration that has shown deep hostility toward higher education. N.Y.U., Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Carnegie Mellon have even larger international student shares than Harvard does. This metric that once reflected their international renown — and financial strength — now looks like a vulnerability. As a share of full-time undergrad. and students in fall 2023 Shows fall enrollment of full-time students at selective four-year colleges and universities that offer bachelor's degrees and above, with at least 1,000 students. Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Carnegie Classification The share of international students studying at these colleges and across the United States has been growing for the past two decades as rising incomes in countries like China and India have produced more families looking to educate their children in America. Domestic forces have played a role, too: Public research universities in particular have turned to international students, who commonly pay full price for tuition, to help compensate for declines in state funding for education. 'We have all this debate about trade deficits with China right now,' said Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, who has studied these shifts in higher education. 'That's a deficit in goods. But when you think of services — like higher ed services — we have a big surplus.' Among full-time undergrad. and students at 193 colleges Based on fall enrollment figures among 193 selective four-year colleges and universities that offer bachelor's degrees and above, with at least 1,000 students. Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Carnegie Classification Higher education is, effectively, a major American export — and one where the foreign students consuming it do so in American communities, also spending money on housing, groceries and books there. More than 1.1 million international students contributed about $43 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-24 academic year, most of it on tuition and housing, according to an analysis by NAFSA, a nonprofit association of international educators. U.S. students, by contrast, often receive financial aid directly from universities or other federal programs. And at public universities, many pay lower in-state tuition. As a result, foreign students can end up contributing more than one and a half times as much as their American counterparts in tuition dollars, said Mirka Martel, head of research, evaluation and learning at the Institute of International Education. Another way to look at this is that the higher tuition paid by international students helps subsidize lower costs for U.S. students. At some public universities, international students pay a tuition rate that's even higher than regular out-of-state tuition. For universities, all of this means that a decline in international students could have serious financial consequences, beyond disrupting classrooms, research and the next generation of workers in the United States. And even without threats as grave as the one Harvard now faces, colleges and universities were already bracing for a decline in international students amid the Trump administration's cuts to federally funded research and aggressive immigration enforcement.
