KPU lays off 45 additional staff as international student enrolment plummets

Early this year, Kwantlen Polytechnic University announced faculty layoffs in the Melville School of Business and Faculty of Arts. About 70 faculty members were laid off as a result of low international student enrolment due to a federal cap announced in 2024. 

In late August, KPU announced further cuts of 45 full-time staff positions, bringing the university’s total cuts to about 115 positions.

In the first half of 2025, Canada issued almost 90,000 fewer study permits than last year.

A report from the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS), which highlights the underfunding of B.C.’s post-secondary institutions, indicated that six institutions are projected to run into deficits in the 2024-25 school year, while 17 would run into deficits by 2025-26. 

According to the document, provincial funding to institutional budgets has dropped significantly in the past few years, decreasing from 68 per cent in 2000 to 40 per cent in 2025, forcing post-secondaries to rely on international student tuition as a primary source of revenue.

This model, the report reads, became unstable in the face of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and federal policy changes, triggering program, staff, and service cuts at universities across the province in light of low enrolment numbers.

“We estimate somewhere between 10 to 20 per cent of the faculty complement of over 1,000 faculty members may be lost,” Kwantlen Faculty Association President Mark Diotte told CBC News. “That’s a generational change, that’s a loss of knowledge at the institution, a loss of connections to industry, a loss of connection to the community.” 

Vancouver Island University is facing a $11.6-million deficit, with Simon Fraser University at a $20-million shortfall, Camosun College in a $11-million deficit, and Langara College facing a combined loss of $15 million.

KPU is projecting a $12.1-million drop in revenue, with a $49-million decrease in international student tuition fees, The Runner reported in March.

Okanagan College is projecting an $8.3-million shortfall and Thompson Rivers University expects a $16.6-million deficit, while the College of New Caledonia is facing a loss of $7 million, as per the BCFS.

The data was collected from public sources like each institution’s approved and projected budgets, board and senate materials, audited financial statements, institutional announcements, and other reports, Cole Reinbold, secretary-treasurer for BCFS, wrote in an email statement to The Runner. 

“Together these examples paint a bleak picture. Institutional stability is deeply tied to public investment,” the BCFS document reads. “Without adequate and reliable provincial funding, institutions are being forced to make decisions that harm students, staff and the long-term interests of communities across BC.”

The University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria (UVic) are both operating at balanced budgets for the 2025-26 academic year. UVic, however, is cutting $13 million from its budget due to falling international student enrolment. 

The BCFS report also outlined three recommendations, which include maintaining a two-per-cent cap on domestic fee increases or restructuring ancillary fees, implementing a new funding model for financial stability, and restoring provincial funding into post-secondary institutions. 

In a staff memo sent out last month, then-KPU acting president Diane Purvey had informed staff of “necessary” additional reductions as the institution continues to experience a decline in international student enrolment. 

She further wrote that the university has opted not to fill 20 vacant positions, cut $3.3 million in discretionary spending, and made plans not to renew temporary contracts. The university had set a $5-million reduction target in its 2025-26 budget to reduce administrative, BC General Employees’ Union, and overtime positions, which include reducing about 40 to 45 full-time positions by March next year, she added. 

“KPU is now forecast to enrol about 2,360 international students for Fall 2025, down almost 60 per cent from Fall 2023 …. Domestic recruitment has also declined about three per cent over the same period.”

Eight instructors were issued layoff notices with end dates for January 2026 at the Melville School of Business, she wrote, which had previously attracted international students in large numbers.