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Cape Breton University is cutting jobs and plans to raise tuition as it grapples with “significant enrolment pressures” and the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue, the institution said Monday.
In a news release, CBU said approximately 50 positions will be impacted, mostly through early retirements, term positions that will not be renewed, or vacancies that will not be filled. Seventeen employees are being laid off.
Gordon MacInnis, CBU’s vice-president of finance and operations, told CBC Radio’s Mainstreet Cape Breton the administration did its best to reduce the impact on staff, but ultimately couldn’t overcome the university’s financial challenges.
“I feel terrible for the 17 individuals who are receiving layoff notices,” MacInnis said.
“It’s pretty hard to find your way through this without impacting people, positions to some degree.”
The losses come just a year after the university said it would have to cut 112 positions to address a new financial reality.
MacInnis told Mainstreet the belt-tightening is necessary due to the significant loss of tuition fees from a shrinking international student population.
Over the last two years, Nova Scotia has received 6,800 fewer international students because of new policies from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, he said.
Of that total, 4,400 had been at CBU.
$77M loss over 3 years
Between that decline and the suspension of post-baccalaureate business programs, CBU said Monday it expects to lose an estimated $77 million in revenue over a three-year period up to March 2027.
The university has revised its enrolment target to 3,500 students, which MacInnis said is “less than 50 per cent what we were planning … on two years ago.”
Tuition will rise by three per cent for undergraduate programs and five per cent for most professional programs in the upcoming academic year. Nova Scotia students will not be affected.
There will also be a five per cent increase to the differential fee for international students.
Still, MacInnis noted, CBU remains an affordable option compared to national and provincial averages. He added that the university is not cutting any programs this year despite the financial crunch.
CBU ‘hopeful’ for rule change
Last Friday, CBU’s board of governors approved a $90-million operating budget for the 2026-27 school year.
The university will use reserve operating funds to cover projected deficits of $8.7 million this year and $5.4 million next year, said MacInnis.
In the meantime, he said the university is working hard to get ready for what it hopes will be a rebound.
“We’re hopeful that the federal government may see its way around to changing up some of the rules and we will see a return of international students to CBU in sufficient numbers.”
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