KPU board of governors approve 2025-26 draft budget including faculty layoffs

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s board of governors (BOG) approved the draft budget for fiscal year 2025-26 during a meeting on March 26. 

The budget projects a decrease of 41 per cent in international student tuition — amounting to a $12-million drop in revenue — in addition to a decline in new international student intake. It also outlines operating grant increases, adjusting faculty levels in terms of enrolment, and reaching budget-reduction targets, among other areas. 

One-time only initiatives in the draft included $986,000 for KPU administration, $628,000 for the president, $2,015,000 for student services, $725,000 for academic, $913,000 for human resources, $221,000 for Indigeneity, and $192,000 for external affairs. 

Faculty salaries are projected to go down by four per cent, while the admin salaries will go up by eight per cent. 

Due to the decline in international student tuition and thus institutional revenue, KPU announced on March 10 it will be laying off approximately 70 faculty members. 

“Many of our faculty are the sole bread winners in their families, and many of the laid-off faculty are women, people of colour, [and] Indigenous. New mothers and new fathers on parental leave are affected,” said Carlos Sandoval, a sociology instructor at KPU who received a layoff notice. 

Sandoval added the decision to lay off faculty members is “unethical, untrustworthy, and unviable.”

“We ask you, do not approve the budget as proposed, send it back for amendments that do not include faculty layoffs,” he said. 

Vice-President Administration Peter Smailes said that KPU has been making difficult decisions across the institution, and more are to come over the next year. 

“If we don’t start now, it will be even more painful next year and the year after,” he said.  

Kwantlen Faculty Association President Mark Diotte said the board has been asked to “rush a decision” to approve the draft budget with “minimal public consultation.”

“This is a life-changing decision for approximately 70 people — teachers, parents, colleagues, and community members who are deciding right now whether they may have to sell their homes and whether they can remain in Canada,” he said.

Some faculty and board members raised concerns about being pressured on timing to approve the budget. 

Vice-President External Affairs Randall Heidt said that if the board doesn’t pass the budget at this meeting, KPU’s $100-million project to build student housing on campus, which it has put forward to the B.C. government’s treasury board, will be affected from a “government relations point of view.”

The draft budget for fiscal year 2025-26 was approved by the board. 

A motion to approve Policy and Procedure AC16 Academic Title Awards, which grants professor titles for all regularized faculty members, failed. Under the policy, instructors would be able to apply for any title without holding a previous title. For example, an instructor could apply to be a professor without holding an associate professor title. 

The policy aimed to recognize the achievements of KPU faculty in teaching, research, scholarship, creative activities, and service in addition to providing them with opportunities.

Ahead of the vote, KPU President Alan Davis said he thinks the policy speaks for itself.

“It doesn’t have universal support,” Davis said. “It has been through possibly one of the most exhaustive policy development processes …. I think this is a major step forward, and it’s nice that it follows the establishment of the first master’s degree at KPU.”

Davis added the process of applying for an academic title is optional. To make the process fair, he said faculty members would have the option to become teaching professors without having to go through a ranking system. 

Faculty board member Lyndsay Passmore said the policy has been “highly controversial” and “unwelcome” by many faculty members. 

Passmore added the policy is “highly unusual” when compared with other universities that often award titles through collective agreements, which are often tied with additional workloads instead of through policy. 

“Even if it’s voluntary, at some point it’s going to feel not voluntary when your peers around you have different titles than you, and so we are no longer on equal footing at KPU,” she said. 

At a previous KPU senate meeting, Passmore said that seven faculty members voted for the policy while eight voted against it. 

“When it’s only impacting faculty … there should be a higher bar to meet in terms of making sure that more people broadly support it because we’re such a diverse university,” she said, adding the policy is “unethical” and has “eroded trust between the management and faculty.” 

During her report on KPU’s strategic plans for Vision 2026, Associate Vice-President Planning and Accountability Lori McElroy said the institution has made good progress on enhancing student experience and ensuring financial sustainability last year, in addition to improving programs and services. 

McElroy added that the university’s weakest progress was noted for being accountable to community partners and government due to failure to achieve domestic student enrolment targets. 

“For some time now, we have had a decline in domestic enrolments,” she said. “Fortunately, they have started to increase, but we’re still below the targets set by the ministry, both overall as well as for health and developmental targets.”

The board also approved the procedure, criteria, and timeline for the selection of a new chancellor as Kim Baird’s term is set to expire in October 2026. 

A motion was also approved to allocate the surplus funds from the 2024-25 fiscal year to a fund in the KPU Foundation to provide student awards and bursaries. 

For the 2024-25 fiscal year, the university is forecasting a surplus of $5.7 million, which is “likely $3 million at this point,” Smailes said based on a review of the budget as of Jan. 31, 2025. 

After discussion with the ministry, KPU anticipates receiving approval to defer a part of the provincial operating grant to use in the future for operating purposes, the meeting’s agenda read. 

“The current preliminary request for deferral has been estimated at $7M but can and

will be increased if the surplus is expected to be higher,” the agenda read. 

Since the surplus at the end of fiscal year 2024-25 was more than the current forecast, the amount of up to $5 million was approved for “flexibility in making a timely and accurate transfer.”

“Is there an opportunity to use those funds against some of the challenges in the budget for fiscal 2025-26, or are there restrictions that led us to believe the recommended course of action was the best one today?” board member Gabby Gill asked during the meeting. 

Smailes said the university is always targeting to increase student awards and bursaries and usually moves “unforeseen excesses” at the end of the year towards the foundation.  

The board’s finance committee also presented a motion to make revisions to Bylaw No. 4, Fees, which concerns annual increases and changes to fees. Under the motion, the tuition for domestic students would be raised by two per cent as of Sept. 1 this year, which is the annual maximum amount allowed by the provincial government.

“Although this policy does not apply to international student tuition, increases were held at 2 per cent for international tuition as well,” the agenda read. 

The next BOG meeting is scheduled for May 28 at 4:00 pm via Microsoft Teams. To learn more, visit www.kpu.ca/governors.