King's, Huron trimming workforces due to financial pressure, but keep layoffs at bay

Alessio Donnini · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 6:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Both of Western University's affiliate assemblage colleges are trimming their workforces while avoiding outright layoffs to offset losses brought connected by a simplification of international students, all portion trying to guarantee nary impacts connected programming.

King's University College successful London, Ont., is giving immoderate employees early status offers, while Huron University College opts to permission immoderate positions vacant, the presidents of some schools told CBC News, Tuesday.

Both institutions said a hard balancing enactment is required to support programs and staffing intact successful a satellite wherever they can't trust connected the higher tuition prices paid by planetary students, and the state won't let them to summation the outgo for home students.

"Like each universities, we're assessing our fiscal concern and addressing strategies and responses to a shifting enrolment situation," said Robert Ventresca, the interim president of King's. "We're making choices that are mindful of the fiscal reality, but besides truly evidently focused connected our ngo and our values."

That fiscal concern astatine Ontario's universities and colleges was made much challenging crossed the board by a headdress connected planetary pupil enrolment, enactment successful spot by Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller successful 2024, successful an effort to easiness strain connected the lodging market.

Since then, respective Ontario colleges, which typically person a overmuch higher proportion of planetary enrolment than universities, have unveiled sweeping programme cuts and layoffs aimed astatine salvaging equilibrium books battered by a driblet successful planetary tuition, which is aggregate times higher than home tuition.

While King's hasn't laid disconnected staff, it has made moves to trim the size of its workforce.

"We've offered aboriginal retirement," Ventresca said. "[They're] accordant with the agreements we person successful place. Completely voluntary, and it's designed to assistance negociate costs."

Ventresca stressed the voluntary quality of the aboriginal status offers and said they're not buyouts. He was incapable to supply details connected however galore unit members were affected. 

"Those numbers are inactive outstanding and to beryllium determined," Ventresca said.

The interaction of the planetary pupil headdress has been little for King's compared to different institutions, helium added, explaining that successful a emblematic year, planetary students accounted for astir 600 of the school's 3,500 pupil population. Moving forward, the anticipation is "under 500, for sure," Ventresca said.

In presumption of programme reductions and people cancellations, Ventresca said "we're not going down that roadworthy astatine this time."

While helium predicts a noticeable diminution successful planetary enrolment, helium said determination is simply a metallic lining.

"While [post-secondary] enrolment wide is down, astatine King's it's up by astir 4 per cent," Ventresca said.

Strong home enrolment keeps Huron cuts to a minimum

At Huron University College, the impact has also been mostly held astatine bay acknowledgment to maturation successful home enrolment, according to Barry Craig, the school's president. 

The schoolhouse has seen year-over-year home enrolment growth nearing 30 per cent for the past respective years, which has helped offset a 50 per cent simplification successful planetary students from pre-pandemic levels.

While the driblet from astir 165 planetary students to an expected 80 students adjacent twelvemonth has resulted successful a tighter budget, Huron hasn't yet taken the way of layoffs, buyouts oregon programme closures.

"We'd similar to debar that, if possible," Craig said.

There have, however, been positions that were near vacant following retirements oregon different departures, helium added.

Despite antithetic approaches to offsetting mislaid revenue, the presidents of some schools agree the origin of the fiscal uncertainty doesn't prevarication squarely astatine the feet of the planetary pupil cap. 

"We've had a frost connected tuition successful the state present for 7 years. We besides had a 10 per cent mandated simplification successful tuition by the state for each the universities," Craig said. "Another cardinal portion of our revenue, the authorities operating grant, has been frozen for years arsenic well."

Both Ventresca and Craig said they're not peculiarly optimistic, fixed the existent governmental climate, that the recently re-elected provincial authorities volition marque immoderate important moves to alleviate the unit soon.

However, Ventresca said, helium remains hopeful.

"I'm hoping that we tin proceed to advocator with governments and with the nationalist connected the worth of higher education."