Mohawk College’s president says a drop in international students means the school faces an estimated $50 million shortfall in the 2025-26 school year. That will mean layoffs, he told workers in an Oct. 30 memo.

Mohawk president Paul Armstrong told CBC Hamilton that when he began his role in July, he already planned a “deep review” of the college’s programming, but that government policy changes have forced an even deeper look.

“What we have seen is a dramatic reduction in the level of international enrollments that we can anticipate,” he said, and that will lead to a gap between revenue and spending.

Heather Giardine-Tuck, president of Local 240 of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU), said “people are very concerned about their programs, their students.” She represents approximately 1,000 teachers, librarians and counselors at Mohawk.

Susan Lau represents about 1,000 support staff in OPSEU Local 241 — a group that includes people who work in information technology, facility services and campus stores. She said the situation caused “a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress and a lot of worry.”

“The feeling of being understaffed and overwhelmed” has been a problem for the past five years, she said, and members worry it’s getting worse.

Mohawk College is experiencing a decline in international enrollment and applications

In an email, Mohawk spokesman Bill Steinburg told CBC Hamilton that as of fall 2023, the college had 7,309 international enrollments. Last fall, he had 6,166. Enrollment represents the number of sections students are taking, not the number of students.

As of last week, the college had received 3,065 international applications. At the same time last year, it received 5,691.

“Our financial challenge will result in impacts in every area of ​​the college,” Armstrong said. “There will be program cuts. There will be service cuts. Staff positions will be eliminated in all three employee groups: administrative, support staff and teachers.”

Mohawk says it has 1,200 full-time employees and up to 1,250 part-time employees, though that number changes each semester. There are 14,694 students enrolled in programs this semester.

STOP | Provincial underfunding and federal changes to blame for Mohawk College’s problems, president says

Mohawk College’s president explains why the college is facing a $50 million deficit

Mohawk College’s president says the college is facing a $50 million shortfall, largely due to a drop in international students.

The president is not saying how many people Mohawk will lay off

“We’re going to do everything we can to eliminate the salary costs properly before we get to the point where we’re going to issue layoff notices to anybody,” Armstrong said.

He said it’s too early to know how many layoffs there will be, in part because the college has offered early retirement packages until Nov. 15 and he doesn’t know how many people will take them.

Neither union blames the administration for the financial dispute. “The situation we’re in is the result of chronic underfunding by the provincial government,” Giardine-Tuck said.

“Choosing not to fund education in a healthy and comprehensive way has forced institutions to find revenue elsewhere. And that ended up being international students,” Lau said. “Now that the levels of government are turning off the tap, the whole system is in a state of having to take drastic measures to make up for the loss.”

The federal government said it was protecting the “integrity” of the international student program

In the past year, the provincial and federal governments have numerous policy changes effectively limiting the number of international students in Ontario colleges and universities. This came in response to critics linking immigration to the housing crisis, as well as concerns about a lack of support for international students and companies described as “unscrupulous private operators”.

In a statement to CBC Hamilton, the office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller said the international student visa program “has become overheated and abused in certain regions, including Ontario.”

“Our message to provinces and post-secondary institutions is clear: the days of doing business putting profit above the education and well-being of students are over. For our part, we are taking steps to secure and restore the integrity of the international student program,” Miller’s office said, adding that last fall he warned that the ministry “will step in and protect the program, including using policy tools under federal jurisdiction if students continue to be inadequately supported.”

Armstrong said Mohawk’s goal with international education was to “internationalize and bring diversity to our university community,” as well as align enrollment with local labor market needs.

Asked if the college was wrong to reach out to international students the way it did, Armstrong said he believed Mohawk was “responsible” and “measured” compared to other institutions.

“I don’t think I made an error of judgment at all, and I don’t think looking back we would have done anything differently up to this point.”

Armstrong is also critical of the government’s changes. For example, he said, reducing the number of programs for which international students can obtain post-graduate work permits doesn’t make sense to him.

Mohawk currently offers 158 programs. Last year, there were 130 eligible for postgraduate work permits. Now 41 are eligible, meaning there is less incentive for students who want to stay in Canada to come. Of those he said, some programs he considers essential to the job market, such as early childhood education, have been left out.

Miller’s office said it plans to annually “refresh” the list of fields it considers eligible for permits, taking feedback into account. He added that the changes to post-graduate work permits do not prevent graduates from accessing work permits under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program or the International Mobility Program.

The office did not specifically address why it excluded the colleges’ early childhood education programs.

In an email, Dayna Smockum, spokeswoman for Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn, said “funding for post-secondary institutions is higher than it’s ever been,” adding that the province has invested 1.3 billions of dollars to “stabilize the sector” earlier this year. .

“The federal government has unilaterally taken the decision to restrict the number of international student visas and we continue to work with the sector to ensure the long-term viability of our post-secondary institutions.”

STOP | Mohawk College’s president says the institution did nothing wrong in its approach to international students

The president of Mohawk College says the Hamilton school’s approach to international students was responsible

Mohawk College President Paul Armstrong says the Hamilton school’s approach to international students has been responsible.

However, Steve Orsini, president of the Council of Ontario Universities, says since 2006, public funding has declined on a per-student basis, leading to “a decade of financial constraints.” His organization represents 20 publicly funded universities.

In 2023, the year recommended by the expert group increasing per-student funding and ending the tuition freeze. Orsini said the province has not adopted those recommendations.

The result, he said, is that 10 universities had deficits of more than $300 million last year. And now, thanks to international student changes, his organization warned, Ontario universities are forecasting losses of more than $300 million in the 2024-25 school year and more than $600 million the following year.

Orsini describes the federal changes as “blunt.”

“The federal government was supposed to target the bad actors. The approach they took targeted the good guys,” he said.

CBC Hamilton requested an interview from Colleges Ontario, which represents the colleges, but did not receive a response before publication.

Cuts needed now to protect faculty long-term: Armstrong

Armstrong said the layoffs at Mohawk will be felt equally and that managers will not be spared at the expense of workers.

Giardine-Tuck said the union trusts them on that. She and Lau said they will work to make sure members understand the rights in their collective agreements.

It’s better for Mohawk to make changes now to avoid worse pain later, Armstrong said, but the short-term effects will be “very serious.”

“There will be things that we can no longer do at Mohawk that will potentially be considered by our students and our community in general.”