Kwantlen to lay off dozens of staff due to fewer foreign students​on March 14, 2025 at 12:34 am

Kwantlen Polytechnic University plans to lay off about six dozen faculty members, citing a sharp decline in international student enrolment and the tuition they pay.

“Our international tuition and fees revenue is projected to fall by $49 million in fiscal 2026,” university president Alan Davis said in an email to faculty on Tuesday in which he informed them of “around” 70 layoffs.

Those to be laid off will find out today.

“This will begin a five-month notice that includes a short labour adjustment period during which we work with the Kwantlen Faculty Association to explore ways to minimize the number of layoffs that go into effect,” Davis said in the email.

Mark Diotte, president of the Kwantlen Faculty Association, was unavailable to comment on Thursday.

Davis was also unavailable, but a spokesman with KPU said the university saw a post-pandemic surge in international enrolment.

“We were already taking steps to trim that back prior to the federal government making its changes,” the spokesman said. “Sadly, that took away our ability to do it gradually.”

Ottawa will issue 437,000 study permits to foreigners in 2025, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, down from 650,000 in 2023.

Tuition from foreign students at Canadian universities is many times that paid by a Canadian student, depending on the institution.

Kwantlen has 1,841 employees, of which 906 are faculty, spread across its five campuses in the Lower Mainland.

Of its roughly 20,000 current students, about 6,000 (30 per cent) are international, according to the university. That number is projected to fall to 4,471 (25 per cent) for the fiscal year beginning on April 1, with overall enrolment declining to 17,627 from 19,664 (a drop of 10 per cent).

Contrast that to fiscal 2022-23 when the student population was 21,528, of which 7,967 (37 per cent) were foreigners.

In its proposed 2025-26 budget, KPU projects a 5.3-per-cent boost in provincial grants to $108.6 million, which subsidizes domestic tuitions.

The university projects international tuitions to be $70 million in the fiscal year that begins April 1, down from $119 million (a drop of 41 per cent), while domestic tuitions are projected to drop by 1.5 per cent to $37 million.

Revenue from international tuition was almost $130 million in fiscal 2023-24, compared to about $40 million from domestic tuitions.