Wanderings – International students not the blame for school woes

Ontario’s colleges and universities have been in the news lately, announcing cutbacks, program cancellations, and even some campus closures. These institutions cite the reduction in international student visas by the federal government for their financial woes, but that is an easy way of deflecting from the issues facing these schools.

First, some background: Ontario’s modern college and university system was legislated in the mid-1960s by then Minister of Education and Minister of University Affairs, Bill Davis. It established 20 colleges across the province and a few universities. Most of those colleges opened in 1967. All these changes were in response to the education needs of the Baby Boomer generation.

Those colleges and universities continued to grow into the 1990s as Baby Boomers married and had families of their own – the so-called Gen X and Gen Y kids. More programs were added, campuses expanded, and the system grew. However, birth rates in Ontario slowed precipitously. Note the use of birth rate, not growth rate.

Between 1960 and 1970, birth rates in the province were cut in half, from around four children per woman to just below two. That plateaued in the 1990s and then dropped further in the 2000s. Ontario’s birth rate has hovered between 1.4 and 1.6 children per woman. Fewer children born here means fewer students for post-secondary institutions. This should have meant that those institutions right-size themselves to adapt – but that did not happen.

While birth rates declined in the country, immigration rates increased. Ontario’s population doubled between 1971 and 2023. But most immigrants to Canada are adults and are not in need of post-secondary institutions either.

In the 1990s, Ontario elected the NDP, followed by the Progressive Conservatives – both were detrimental to funding post-secondary education. The NDP cut because they had previously overspent, and the PCs cut because of their hyper-fixation on balancing the budget at all costs. Tuition increased, financial aid was changed, and still, the post-secondary education system grew.

Into the 2000s, Canada allowed more international student visas, and this helped fill the financial void left in the system. Domestic student tuition were capped, and any increases were carefully controlled by the government as a political lever to garner votes. International students pay much higher fees. A term (semester) of a program at Algonquin College in Ottawa costs $6,150 more for an international student than a domestic one. At the University of Ottawa, that is nearly $17,000 more per term. International students are cash cows for cash-hungry institutions. But why?

Ontario still under-funds its post-secondary education and is at the bottom of all provinces in a per-student funding ranking for colleges and universities. Ontario students also carry the highest percentage of student debt coming out of a post-secondary education.

The mess that post-secondary institutions find themselves in is not the fault of international student visa cuts; it is that the system has never right-sized itself to the changing domestic need. Instead of being agile and adapting to the population trends in Ontario, it blindly grew while balancing its collective books on international students who paid significant premiums to study here, which often subsidized programs that should have gone to the dust bin. Now the rubber has hit the road, and schools across the province are looking at significant deficits, layoffs, and program cuts.

Loyalist College announced a proposed 30 per cent cut to its programs, St. Lawrence 40 per cent, Algonquin has a $32 million deficit and is closing a campus. Queen’s University has projected a nearly $36 million deficit, and Carleton is reporting an approximate $50 million deficit. All this is grim news if you work for one of these schools. It is even more grim for graduating students who are trying to select a school for their future, only to have a cascading list of announcements of changes and cuts.

Fixing this issue is not easy or cheap. First, Ontario needs to increase its per-student funding to these institutions. That requires a 40 per cent increase just to meet the current national average of per-student funding.

Second, there needs to be a systematic review of programs offered. Having 23 universities and 24 colleges offer some of the same, duplicative programs does not make sense, especially in Toronto, where there are multiple schools within easy commuting distance of each other, duplicating each other.

Third, schools have to be right-sized for the population that exists, with a modest amount of room for international students to attend in some programs.

Last, and most importantly, every effort must be made to keep post-secondary education affordable and accessible to all Ontario students. It has been proven time and time again that most students who attend a post-secondary program have higher earning potential and career outcomes than those who do not.

This will mean that there will be job and program cuts, but with new funding and a true right-sizing of schools, a better outcome for students is possible.