The recent cap on international students has thrown the Canadian post-secondary education system into crisis. Colleges and universities across the country had increasingly been dependent on the high tuition fees paid by international students. And now that this source of income is disappearing, their massive underfunding is being revealed and they have begun cutting services and programs.
Decades of underfunding
Historically, provincial governments were the largest funders of Canada’s public colleges and universities. But governments have progressively cut or frozen funding since the 1980s, to the point where today student tuition makes up the majority of colleges’ and universities’ revenue.
Most of this tuition comes from the pockets of international students, who pay significantly higher fees. As an example, Lambton College in Sarnia earns twice as much revenue from international students as it did from domestic students and government funding combined.
Governments have been well aware of this transition. In 2023 (before the announcement of the cap on international students), the federal government bragged that international education contributes more than $22 billion to the Canadian economy—more than the lumber or auto industry.
This fleecing of international students has allowed the Canadian ruling class to maintain the educational infrastructure this country needs at little cost to them. These international students were accepted with open arms when it was convenient, and profitable, for the capitalist system. But now, as the ruling class has been unable to solve the housing crisis, they have turned to scapegoating immigrants, starting with international students.
The house of cards comes crashing down
At the start of 2024, the federal government announced a 35 per cent reduction of international study permits that would be issued that year, and an additional 10 per cent reduction in 2025. This has had a devastating impact on the revenues of post-secondary institutions across Canada.
In Ontario, college spending has dropped by $752-million this fiscal year and Ontario universities are projected to lose over $1-billion in revenue over the next two years.
McGill and Concordia universities in Quebec, Dalhousie in Nova-Scotia and Simon Fraser in B.C. all have projected deficits for this year, the first time any of these institutions have posted a deficit in over a decade.
Under capitalism, budget deficits mean layoffs for campus workers, higher tuition prices, and a reduction in the quality of education. Post-secondary institutions across the country have already started to take austerity measures.
In October, Seneca college announced the sudden closure of its entire Markham campus, citing the drop in international enrollment as the primary reason for the closure. In May, Simon Fraser University closed programs and fired 85 workers. These cuts are only the start, and administrations have warned that more are to come.
Who Pays?
As post-secondary institutions scramble to adjust to this reduction in revenue, different levels of government have pointed the finger at each other. Immigration minister Marc Miller has said that “I didn’t tell any university or college to charge international students four or five times what we charge domestic students” and that “some programs will have to close”.
Administrations advocate that provincial governments lift tuition caps on domestic students, who will then be made to make up for lost revenue. Either way it will be the students and workers who are asked to pay for the crisis that capitalism has created.
That is why we need to take control out of the hands of the corporate stooges who are running the universities and colleges into the ground. We need institutions run for genuine need and for the betterment of society. We need institutions run by the campus workers and students, both domestic and international, all paid for with the profits of the giant corporations.
