Quebec universities face $200M shortfall amid international student drop

CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 7:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

At slightest 7 universities successful Quebec are forecasting fund deficits for the 2025–26 world year, raising concerns that heavy cuts could beryllium connected the horizon.

Université de Montréal is projecting a shortfall of $9.7 million, portion Concordia University anticipates a shortage of astir $32 million.

Christian Blanchette, president of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), which represents the province's universities, said the assemblage is being squeezed by 2 large pressures: a deficiency of authorities enactment for wage increases and inflation, and a steep driblet successful planetary pupil applications.

"We cognize that immoderate universities person already announced that they would person radical being fto go," Blanchette said successful an interview.

According to the BCI, applications from planetary students person fallen by an mean of 43 per cent. That could construe into a 30 per cent diminution successful existent enrolments, starring to an estimated $200 cardinal nonaccomplishment successful gross crossed Quebec's assemblage network.

"To person a concern similar that for 1 twelvemonth tin beryllium precise devastating for a fig of universities," Blanchette said.

He attributes the downturn to the provincial government's determination to headdress the fig of planetary students, a determination helium says has damaged Quebec's estimation abroad.

Despite these fiscal constraints and an uncertain economical outlook, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) says it has managed to equilibrium its 2025–26 budget, successful portion owed to an anticipated summation successful autumn enrolment.

Université Laval, meanwhile, has tightened spending and made pugnacious decisions astir which projects to prioritize successful bid to enactment successful the black.

At McGill University, the fund was balanced chiefly done unit attrition and retirements. The assemblage is forecasting a 10 percent driblet successful planetary undergraduate students and warns that a steeper diminution would importantly interaction revenues.

International pupil admissions capped

In February, Premier François Legault's authorities announced that universities would not beryllium permitted to admit much planetary students than they did successful 2024.

But that baseline twelvemonth was already weak, Blanchette points out, due to the fact that Ottawa had imposed a headdress connected planetary pupil permits earlier successful the year. That argumentation led to an archetypal 15 percent driblet successful planetary enrolments crossed Quebec's universities.

Recent information collected by his enactment and shared with the Ministry of Higher Education shows a 43 percent driblet successful planetary applications betwixt aboriginal April 2024 and the aforesaid play this year, with francophone universities seeing the steepest declines.

WATCH | Who's astir affected by caps? 

At Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), the alteration is astir 60 percent, according to Blanchette, who is besides that university's rector.

Martin Maltais is simply a higher acquisition backing adept and president of the Association canadienne-française determination l'avancement des sciences — a Quebec-based enactment that promotes technological probe and knowledge.

Maltais said universities are besides hurting due to the fact that of the government's determination to frost backing envelopes for universities, meaning schools volition person nary compensation for ostentation oregon pre-approved wage increases.

"All of these issues combined explicate the extent of the challenges we're seeing," helium said,

Given the existent landscape, Quebec's universities indispensable urgently reposition themselves connected the planetary stage, helium said.

"We request a strategy to internationalize higher education. We can't proceed letting each assemblage enactment successful its ain self-interest arsenic we've done for years," helium said. 

Higher acquisition curate defends government 

Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge precocious decided to hold consultations for the adjacent multi-year migration program until autumn and that is making matters worse, according to some Blanchette and Maltais.

"It creates uncertainty successful higher acquisition planning," Maltais said. "Sooner oregon later, planetary pressures volition unit Quebec to reopen the gates to overseas students."

Speaking to reporters past Thursday, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said she's good alert of the challenges facing universities.

Still, she argued that the backing pumped into the strategy successful caller years has been massive, and she does not program to connection further fiscal enactment to screen the deficits.

"Yes, things are a spot much difficult, but I judge universities person capable flexibility to adapt, tighten their budgets and find antithetic ways to hole them," Déry said.

Her bureau besides said operating grants roseate by much than $1 cardinal from 2019 to 2024 — an mean summation of 38 percent per institution, which is higher than the wide maturation successful pupil enrolment.

As for planetary students, the minister's bureau said the extremity is to dilatory maturation and stabilize numbers, noting that galore institutions received acold much applications than they were capable to admit.

Among them was Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), which was the people of a fraudulent strategy to bring African students to Canada. Hundreds of applications led to lone a fistful of morganatic admissions.

The ministry says it volition clasp disconnected connected making immoderate conclusions until autumn enrolment information is available. In the meantime, the bureau emphasizes that universities person implicit flexibility to revise and accommodate their recruitment strategies.