‘Too early to say’: KPU senate approves 2026-27 draft budget despite some faculty concerns

Kwantlen Polytechnic University President Bruce Choy said it’s “too early to say” if more faculty layoffs are on the table, during a senate meeting on Nov. 24.

The KPU senate approved a 2026-27 draft budget that plans to reduce faculty and non-faculty salary spending by almost $23 million when compared to fiscal year 2024-25.

The reduction targets in the draft budget, as compared to the 2024-25 actuals, include a $12.3 million cut to faculty salaries, $3.6 million cut to BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) salaries, and $5.5 million cut to admin salaries.

The draft budget’s non-salary reduction target is $5 million for 2026-27 and includes cuts to travel and professional development, fees and services, and cost of sales. The largest cut is to student awards. KPU spent more than $7 million on student awards in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The draft budget cuts student awards by 34 per cent to just $4.7 million.

“If by stable enrolment date, which is Jan. 20, the student forecast deviates significantly, plus or minus $5 million from the figures in the current draft budget, we will need to revisit our assumptions and amend the plan accordingly,” Associate Vice-President Finance Carole Laplante said.

In March, KPU announced layoff notices of about 70 faculty members. In August, another 45 staff were cut, The Runner reported.

Salary and benefits account for about 70 per cent of KPU’s total expenses, Laplante said.

The spending cuts in the draft budget come as KPU struggles with declining international student enrolment and revenue.

The federal government announced a cap on international students in 2024. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s 2026-28 immigration levels plan, released in early November, aims to issue 155,000 international study permits for 2026. The permits will drop to 150,000 for both 2027 and 2028.

In fiscal 2024, international student tuition and fees totaled $134 million and accounted for 46 per cent of KPU’s total revenue. By fiscal 2027, this number is expected to drop to just $46 million, or 18 per cent, of the university’s total revenue.

Domestic student tuition and fees are “flat” and are expected to increase from $38 million in fiscal 2024 to $41 million in fiscal 2027, the meeting agenda reads.

“As the cohorts of the current international students roll off, they won’t be replaced at the same levels, giving us [over] the next three years declining revenues as they graduate,” Choy said.

In 2024, KPU sold land at the Cloverdale campus — the location of Surrey’s new hospital.

The institution has also invested $83 million from the deferred operating grants from prior years, Laplante said. This grant cannot be used for ongoing operating expenses, as usage was restricted by the B.C. government. It will be used for one-time investments for health and safety, planning, accessibility, and equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts, among others.

“We have a very narrow window in which we can take mitigation and transformation actions. That narrow window pretty much happens now,” Choy said.

Some faculty senators raised concerns about the budget, highlighting both faculty and student retention.

“I’m very concerned about the human element,” said Tara Lyons, faculty senator and criminology instructor.

“I’m concerned about retention of students…. I am very concerned of losing faculty [and] services — I don’t think that’s going to help us to retain students. I appreciate getting rid of waste, and I love this approach of less bureaucracy and getting rid of obstacles, but the work we do as faculty at KPU [is that] we are a front line with our students.”

Lyons said KPU students have told her many times that they don’t have enough access to accessibility services and counselling, that their well-being is suffering, and it’s pushing them to other post-secondaries.

“We just keep cutting people who, to my understanding, are how we keep students here,” Lyons said. “We do really intensive work with them. We have small classes. We have relationships with them. We have these really creative things we do with them.”

Student senator Sheena Dela Torre said if there was an assurance from the budget that there will be no layoffs, it would be more acceptable.

Faculty senator and librarian Celia Brinkerhoff asked what would happen if senate did not support the draft budget.

“I will need to show up to the board of governors and say, ‘Here is a budget, but it’s not supported by senate’ and wear the embarrassment of that of which then I could get fired,” Choy said.

“I’m wearing all the risk on this.”

This will be the first budget Choy presents to the board of governors, having started his term as president in September.

Lyons disagreed with Choy’s comment about wearing all the risk.

“I’m just having a hard time with [Brinkerhoff] asking about the process and feeling kind of pressured to vote a certain way,” Lyons said.

“With the number of people who have already lost their jobs and will lose their jobs, and saying that you wear all the risk, respectfully, [there are] colleagues I know who have lost their jobs and their families that have to move. So I just want to say I don’t feel like you’re wearing all the risk,” Lyons said.

“As a faculty senator, it’s my role to also represent faculty. I feel like the risk and the burden has been on faculty so far — and it looks like it will continue to be and there might be some admin stuff.”

Choy apologized for the “flippant comment.”

“I fully recognize the pain of the losses of faculty positions in the previous year — something that we’re very conscious of,” Choy said. “My executive team has discussed this when we were setting the particular budget, and … the burden is being taken across the whole of the institution. It’s recognition that I also take some of that burden with you guys.”

The draft budget was approved with 21 votes in favour and two opposed. Faculty senator Mike Larsen and Lyons voted against.

The draft 2026-27 budget will be presented to the board of governors at the next meeting on Jan. 28.

The next KPU senate meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26 at 4:00 pm online via Microsoft Teams. For more information, visit www.kpu.ca/senate.