The current turmoil in the post-secondary sector was highlighted by Laurentian University’s interim president during meetings with the university's two governing bodies last week.
This includes the lack of funding news for post-secondary institutions coming out of the Ontario government and the federal government’s recent announcement surrounding a cap on international students.
Sheila Embleton said during the Feb. 13 senate meeting the sector has “been kind of put in turmoil, because of what you must have read about in the press about the international student visa caps.”
“That's a really destabilizing thing for the whole sector, right across the country,” she said. “Universities, colleges, other kinds of post-secondary, like career colleges and so on. It's just completely unstable."
During the Feb. 16 board of governors meeting, in speaking about enrolment numbers, Embleton said "the cloud on the horizon there, of course, is the international student visa cap for undergrads ... it does mean that there's quite a bit of uncertainty, volatility there with those numbers, and that has strong financial implications as well."
Sudbury.com reached out to Laurentian University on the caps on international students when the announcement was made last month, requesting an interview.
We instead received a written statement from Embleton, saying the university is interested in seeing how the province will allocate spaces for international students, and until those details become clear, it can’t estimate the impact to Laurentian University.
“At Laurentian we see a greater percentage of our international student population at the graduate level, which is not affected by these changes,” Embleton said in the statement. “As of last year, Laurentian reached the provincial average of 17 per cent of the student population coming in as international students."
Laurentian University, which exited insolvency in late 2022, put a focused effort on recruiting international students for the current school year, resulting in a 154-per-cent increase in its international student enrolment as of the first day of class this past fall.
Embleton also commented last week about the uncertainty regarding provincial funding for the post-secondary sector. There is still no announcement regarding the recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel on Post-Secondary Education, which included tuition fee increases.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Feb. 13 he has completely ruled out tuition fee increases as a way to ease financial struggles faced by the province's colleges and universities.
Neither Ford nor Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop have indicated yet what they plan to do to stabilize post-secondary funding, aside from telling institutions to find efficiencies, and, now ruling out a tuition increase.
"There have been numerous occasions recently in which the premier has said that he will not increase student fees, so we're all waiting to see if there'll be any increase in the base funding or not," Embleton said during the Feb. 16 board of governors meeting. "So of course, when any news comes from that, it will get folded into our budgeting process at whatever stage we are at that point."
“Supposedly government will be making some sort of announcement before the end of February,” Embleton told LU senate members Feb. 13. “They have repeatedly said that it won't be allowed to have any increase in fees… it may be some form of funding announcement. We just simply don't know.”
In her written report presented to both the senate and board of governors, the Laurentian interim president said the university has received notice from the province that its underspent amounts under the 2022-23 Facilities Renewal Program will be available for LU to use over the 2024-2025, 2025-2026, and 2026-2027 fiscal years (on top of those years’ normal allocations).
“We also recently received positive news from the province about special funding for Indigenous initiatives,” Embleton said.
“The Indigenous Education Branch has given us $2 million over three years (2023-2026) to support various initiatives that support Indigenous students, such as counselling and support services and cultural events. This now secures the funds for three years rather than the previous annual renewals.”
-With files from Canadian Press
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
