Cape Breton University faces budget cuts up to $20M due to international student cap

Cape Breton University is slashing its budget by up to $20 million this year because of a federal cut in the number of international students allowed.

President David Dingwall said the restriction means 1,200 fewer international students at CBU this year.

The university is doing everything it can to avoid job losses, he said.

"We're doing our very best in terms of cutting travel, cutting various aspects in the university, but it will be fairly significant as we go forward," Dingwall told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton. "I think there's anywhere between $15 and $20 million in terms of reductions."

Despite the travel cuts, CBU is trying to be strategic while still trying to grow the international student population, the president said.

"I've travelled to London," he said. "I've travelled to Cairo. I've been in India [and] met with the embassies in all of those locations to remind them that notwithstanding the restrictions that the Government of Canada has placed on our sector, we're still open for business."

Enrolment peaked at 9,100

The university's total enrolment peaked at 9,100 in 2023, when more than 75 per cent of the student population consisted of international students.

Dingwall said CBU had developed a plan to gradually lower the total enrolment by 2027, but the government's restrictions made that moot and created the need for severe budget cuts.

"That was always the plan to take it back to 7,000 and we're below 7,000 now, so we have to be careful in subsequent years in terms of what these cutbacks really mean," he said.

"We find ourselves in a situation where geopolitics has taken hold of the whole thing and I'm disappointed in the Government of Canada for the way in which they have proceeded on this particular topic, as many other universities are."

Rising anti-immigrant sentiment

The federal government did not consult the post-secondary sector last year when it put a cap on new international enrolments, Dingwall said.

He said it was likely a response to colleges in Ontario and British Columbia that took on too many students and rising anti-immigrant sentiment among the general public.

In Cape Breton, the explosion in international student enrolment has resulted in investments in public transit and plans for major investments in housing after complaints that the community could not accommodate such a rapid increase in population.