Canada’s Next Big Crisis Is Already Here: The Collapse of Post-Secondary Education

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Months ago, I said one of Canada’s biggest looming crises would be in post-secondary education. That moment is no longer on the horizon, it’s arrived.

When the federal government dramatically reduced the number of international student permits last year, it may have helped ease pressure on housing and immigration systems. But make no mistake: we traded one crisis for another.

International students didn’t just contribute to cultural diversity on campuses, they were the financial backbone of Canada’s underfunded universities and colleges. In many cases, they paid three to four times more tuition than Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Unlike domestic students, their tuition isn’t capped or subsidized, it’s priced by the market.

Why does this matter?

Because provinces have failed for decades to properly fund post-secondary education. Some, like Alberta, have even gone backwards. Since 2019, the Alberta government has cut nearly $700 million from its post-secondary budget.

Most provinces currently subsidize tuition for Canadian students by anywhere from 40% to 75%, depending on the institution and the program. But with caps on domestic tuition and flat or shrinking government support, many universities turned to international students to make up the difference.

And now, that revenue lifeline is being slashed.

In 2024, the federal government cut the number of international students by more than a third, and the cap may shrink further next year. That’s left universities scrambling to fill massive financial holes.

They have three options:

1. Lay off staff and cut programs, forcing Canadian students to relocate or give up on their academic paths.

2. Beg provinces or Ottawa for billions of dollars in emergency funding.

3. Dramatically increase tuition for Canadian students, a politically toxic move in a country already grappling with affordability.

We’re already seeing the fallout.

• Dalhousie University is facing a $20 million deficit.

• Queen’s University: $36 million.

• University of Waterloo: $75 million.

• University of Ottawa: $18 million.

• York University: a staggering $132 million.

• Mohawk College: $50 million.

• University of Alberta: $46 million.

• Concordia University: $83 million — and they’ve already announced plans to shut down the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies.

  

That’s not even the full list.

In Ontario alone, nearly 600 programs have been suspended and 10,000 employees laid off due to the international student cap.

And universities are warning us: this is just the beginning.

What we’re witnessing is the result of years of governments shirking their responsibility to fund education. Instead of treating universities and colleges as essential public infrastructure, the foundation of our future economy and democracy, they treated them like private businesses, forced to hustle for cash however they could.

Now that the international student cash cow has been hobbled, there’s nowhere left to run.

If Canada doesn’t step up and properly fund post-secondary education, we risk gutting our ability to train doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, social workers, and the very researchers who helped get us through the pandemic. The impacts won’t just be felt in lecture halls, but in hospitals, schools, and communities across the country.

This isn’t a warning anymore. It’s happening now. And if governments don’t act fast, we’ll be asking the next generation to clean up a disaster we could have prevented.