TRU begins cutting budgets, eyes layoffs in face of dropping international enrolment

UPDATE 11:17 a.m.

Thompson Rivers University is fortifying its reserves and beginning a process of making budget cuts for next year — and while layoffs are not part of the plan, they are on the table.

Following an announcement last January that the number of international student permits would be cut across Canada and capped for two years, TRU is now facing choppy waters afters its international enrolment dropped by 400 this fall from last year.

International students have made up a large portion of TRU's student body and revenue in recent years.

Last year, university data showed nearly half of on-campus TRU students were foreign. The university is budgeting for $91 million in revenue from international student tuition in 2024-25, which makes up nearly 30 per cent of TRU's overall budget.

In a notice sent out to university staff and faculty on Friday, Provost Gillian Balfour and Matt Milovick, TRU's vice-president of administration and finance, said budget reductions would have to be made to reach a balanced budget next year.

Cuts include potential reductions in unfilled positions, a 15 per cent reduction in travel, a non-salary reduction across department budgets and some existing positions may be considered for reduction as well.

The notice said “significant, immediate action” is required to balance the 2025-26 budget, which will need to be slashed by seven per cent to eight per cent.

Contract faculty positions cut

Speaking with Castanet on Monday morning, Balfour said TRU is starting with reductions to non-compensation and budget holders have been given the responsibility to determine where reductions can be made.

“Then we come back as a team of leaders, and then we begin to process where those cuts, again to non-compensation, are really going to impact the quality of services to students,” she said.

“Then we have to figure out where those cuts can come from elsewhere, because, again, what we’re looking for is the protection for he core business of the institution.”

When asked if layoffs were a possibility, Balfour said she has “no idea,” but there will be a loss of contract faculty positions as a direct result of the changes.

“Plain and simple, nothing more than that,” she said.

"This is a natural, if you want to call it, a melt that happens when you see a dramatic contraction of an enrolment within programming — we are protecting our core."

She said TRU is still in a phase of freezing hiring and assessing current vacancies, but isn't anywhere near a position where it is assessing its current complement of faculty and staff.

Where else to cut?

There are about 124 unfilled positions at TRU, some of which have been unfilled for years and others from investments to address priorities at the institution. Milovick said TRU is looking to identify about 70 of those positions to reduce.

“Especially those vacancies that have been sitting on the vacancy list for, say, more than one academic year, we have to ask ourselves, 'Do we still need those positions?'” he said

“As people leave the university it might mean that a vacancy that’s come forward and we leave that new vacancy empty.”

Milovick added savings could be found in other non-compensation areas, such as when the temporary West Gate residences are removed at the end of the winter semester, which will bring a savings of about $700,000 a year.

While numbers are still preliminary, Milovick said Friday's memo was based on the second-quarter financial forecast.

Balfour added the announcement is also due to a changing external landscape, including the latest Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada changes Nov. 1.

“That's been the latest piece of this puzzle is anticipating the next move of the federal government, but also its impact on us locally,” she said.

Milovick said reductions likely wouldn’t be made this year but will be used to ensure the university is well-positioned for future years and “get our feet back under us.”

He said work to address the IRCC changes has been ongoing since January and is continuing, but he doesn’t expect there to be any more surprises int he future.

“There are no other levers for the federal government to pull. I think all of what they can do, sort of completely shutting it down, has been done,” Milovick said.

“As things move and shift, we'll move and shift with them, but we will put a new budget for '25-26 in front of our board at the end of March.”

Making investments

Balfour said TRU has prioritized investing in future students and ensuring high-quality brand recognition in its recruitment.

She said the university is looking at its web-design process, investing in an internal information system for ease of access for students, improving its annual open house and looking at callback campaigns for prospective applicants.

Investments into the TRU Wildfire initiative, new and renewed programs and domestic recruitment are also ongoing.

“We've had a really fortunate relationship with SD73 and we capture the largest portion of those high school graduates,” Balfour said.

“But we need to go beyond Kamloops and we need to think about how we can recruit from elsewhere, beyond our local school board.”

She said she’s been trying to grapple with a flat level of domestic enrolment and retention since she arrived at TRU in 2022 and would have happened regardless of changes to international student permits.

Balfour said domestic enrolment won't make up for the decline in international enrolment.

“The effort that's being made to recruit more domestic students to TRU is more about purpose and mandate than it is about catching up to what's happened as a result of IRCC,” she said.

“Those two things are not equivalent, financially or in any other way.”

Post-secondary 'armageddon'

Milovick described the changes as “armageddon right across the post-secondary landscape in Canada” — and he said no one is being spared.

“This is a multi-billion dollar hit to our country that was purposeful, and this isn’t unique to TRU or British Columbia,” he said.

Balfour said she thinks the post-secondary sector in B.C. is fortunate compared to other provinces, due to how the institutions are funded.

“In B.C. it'll be tough, but at least we have, I would argue, we have some kind of safety net,” she said.

“We have an opportunity, I would say, over the next 12 to 18 months to sort of reposition ourselves, to get our programming right, to get our services right, to see where we can find efficiencies.”

Milovick said he thinks TRU has a history of strong fiscal management and added the province has been supportive, which makes him cautiously optimistic about the future. He said TRU is “well-positioned” to deal with the financial crisis.

“We have been well managed for decades and we will weather this," he said. "We are going to be OK, but we will have to make choices."

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ORIGINAL 4 A.M.

Thompson Rivers University is battening down the hatches and looking at what can be thrown amid a financial crisis brought about by a dramatic drop in international students.

Following an announcement last January that the number of international student permits would be cut across Canada and capped for two years, TRU is now facing choppy waters afters its international enrolment dropped by 400 this fall from last year.

In a notice sent out to TRU faculty and staff on Friday, provost and VP academic Gillian Balfour and VP of administration and finance Matt Milovick said international enrolment is expected to continue falling until new programs are created — which will take at least three years.

Budget cuts are needed and the process by which TRU determines what to cut will be set in the coming weeks.

“In some cases, we may also need to consider reducing existing positions. TRU is not considering an early retirement incentive plan for any employee group,” the notice reads.

The notice says unfilled vacancies will be reviewed as well to determined which can remain unfilled. There were around 75 unfilled positions at TRU earlier this year.

Travel expenses will be reduced by 15 per cent, and a one per cent non-compensation reduction across department budgets will be implemented shortly.

The notice says TRU will examine opportunities for new revenue.

Budgets need to be balanced

The university is forecasting a budget surplus of $14 million for 2024-25, $9 million of which will go to operating reserves for future years and $5 million will go to strategic investments and select capital projects.

This will be the last year of surplus budgets for some time.

The notice says “significant, immediate action” is required to balance the 2025-26 budget, which will need to be slashed by seven per cent to eight per cent. Further reductions are expected for the next three years.

“This is based on current modelling and could change if external factors change,” the notice said.

The university will continue to invest in “high-priority strategic projects,” including new or renewed programs and its TRU Wildfire initiative, which the notice called “critical” to its future growth. New wildfire courses could launch as early as 2025.

While TRU budgeted for a $5.5 million surplus in the first quarter of its financial forecast, the university expects to see international headcount drop further by January and remain hundreds of students below its target of 4,000 for several years.

TRU put an indefinite pause on hiring and shaved off $5 million in internal capital projects in response to an expected 50 per cent loss in incoming undergraduate and 75 per cent in post-baccalaureate international students by January.

Confident in face of crisis

The notice attributes declining enrolment to the permit cap as well as the damage to Canada’s reputation as a place to study.

International students at TRU pay approximately $19,000 in first-year tuition, compared to $4,487 for domestic students. The university has budgeted for $91 million in international tuition for the 2024-25 school year — representing approximately 26 per cent of an anticipated $309.7 million in revenue.

“These next years will present TRU with unprecedented challenges, similar to what most Canadian universities now face,” the notice says.

“We are confident, however, that with proactive action, strategic decision-making, and pan-institutional collaboration, TRU can emerge from this financial crisis stronger and better able to serve our societally important mission.”