The Government of BC is keeping an eye on the financial challenges universities and colleges in the province are facing as the federal government limits international student arrivals.
Some BC colleges have already turned to layoffs as international enrollment falls thanks to new caps on study permits as Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government responds to concerns that immigration is too high amid the country’s housing and affordability crisis.
Now that the federal government is turning off the tap of incoming international students, some BC institutions are feeling the financial pinch.
Canadian universities and colleges can charge international students high tuition fees. Domestic students have certain protections against tuition fee hikes, but international students do not. Over the past few decades, institutions across Canada have increasingly turned to international student recruitment to bolster operating budgets.
Cole Reinbold, with the BC Federation of Students, and Pauline Greaves, with the Langara Faculty Association, accused the provincial government and its predecessors of lagging behind in their contribution to educating students in the province.
Reinbold pointed to BCFS numbers that suggested an undergraduate student in the 1970s would have 80% of their cost of schooling paid for by the government. But now, only about 40% of an undergraduate students’ study costs are paid for by government subsidies — and their tuition fees make up the rest.
“It’s not a shortage of international students,” Reinbold said. “It’s a shortage of $500 million the government needs to put into the post-secondary system.”
But BC’s provincial government countered that operating grants for BC post-secondary institutions have increased every year since 2016-17.
“These grants have increased over $1 billion between 2016/17 and 2024/25,” a spokesperson with BC’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills told Daily Hive.
But it also acknowledged that institutions are facing financial pressure.
“We are aware that broad economic factors, such as global inflation and the federal government’s cap on international students, are continuing to impact the post-secondary sector and influencing the decisions that some institutions are facing,” the government said.
Though the government did not commit to any additional financial assistance, it said it’s watching the situation closely.
“We remain committed to working with public post-secondary institutions as they navigate these financially challenging times.”
The University of British Columbia, the province’s largest post-secondary institution, told Daily Hive it’s confident its strong financial position will allow it to weather the current twin challenges of inflation and declining international enrollment.
“The university is taking a fiscally disciplined and conservative approach to financial planning for the next few years,” UBC’s director of university affairs, Matt Ramsey, told Daily Hive.
Simon Fraser University, another sizeable university in Vancouver, told Daily Hive it anticipates its budgets will “remain tight” in the years to come.
“Like most post-secondary institutions across Canada, SFU is facing financial challenges due to increasing operating costs and declining revenue,” it said. “New government restrictions on international undergraduate and graduate students, delays in visa applications, and limitations on spousal visas are contributing to lower future international tuition forecasts.”