Quebec universities face $200M shortfall amid international student drop

At least seven universities in Quebec are forecasting budget deficits for the 2025–26 academic year, raising concerns that deep cuts could be on the horizon.

Université de Montréal is projecting a shortfall of $9.7 million, while Concordia University anticipates a deficit of nearly $32 million.

Christian Blanchette, president of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), which represents the province's universities, said the sector is being squeezed by two major pressures: a lack of government support for salary increases and inflation, and a steep drop in international student applications.

"We know that some universities have already announced that they would have people being let go," Blanchette said in an interview.

According to the BCI, applications from international students have fallen by an average of 43 per cent. That could translate into a 30 per cent decline in actual enrolments, leading to an estimated $200 million loss in revenue across Quebec's university network.

"To have a situation like that for one year can be very devastating for a number of universities," Blanchette said.

He attributes the downturn to the provincial government's decision to cap the number of international students, a move he says has damaged Quebec's reputation abroad.

Despite these financial constraints and an uncertain economic outlook, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) says it has managed to balance its 2025–26 budget, in part due to an anticipated increase in fall enrolment.

Université Laval, meanwhile, has tightened spending and made tough decisions about which projects to prioritize in order to stay in the black.

At McGill University, the budget was balanced mainly through staff attrition and retirements. The university is forecasting a 10 percent drop in international undergraduate students and warns that a steeper decline would significantly impact revenues.

International student admissions capped

In February, Premier François Legault's government announced that universities would not be permitted to admit more international students than they did in 2024.

But that baseline year was already weak, Blanchette points out, because Ottawa had imposed a cap on international student permits earlier in the year. That policy led to an initial 15 percent drop in international enrolments across Quebec's universities.

Recent data collected by his organization and shared with the Ministry of Higher Education shows a 43 percent drop in international applications between early April 2024 and the same period this year, with francophone universities seeing the steepest declines.

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The CAQ government is reducing how many applications it will process for new international students by about 20 per cent starting this year.

At Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), the decrease is around 60 percent, according to Blanchette, who is also that university's rector.

Martin Maltais is a higher education funding expert and president of the Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences — a Quebec-based organization that promotes scientific research and knowledge.

Maltais said universities are also hurting because of the government's decision to freeze funding envelopes for universities, meaning schools will receive no compensation for inflation or pre-approved salary increases.

"All of these issues combined explain the depth of the challenges we're seeing," he said,

Given the current landscape, Quebec's universities must urgently reposition themselves on the global stage, he said.

"We need a strategy to internationalize higher education. We can't continue letting each university act in its own self-interest as we've done for years," he said. 

Higher education minister defends government 

Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge recently decided to delay consultations for the next multi-year immigration plan until fall and that is making matters worse, according to both Blanchette and Maltais.

"It creates uncertainty in higher education planning," Maltais said. "Sooner or later, international pressures will force Quebec to reopen the gates to foreign students."

Speaking to reporters last Thursday, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said she's well aware of the challenges facing universities.

Still, she argued that the funding pumped into the system in recent years has been massive, and she does not plan to offer additional financial support to cover the deficits.

"Yes, things are a bit more difficult, but I believe universities have enough flexibility to adapt, tighten their budgets and find different ways to prepare them," Déry said.

Her office also said operating grants rose by more than $1 billion from 2019 to 2024 — an average increase of 38 percent per institution, which is higher than the overall growth in student enrolment.

As for international students, the minister's office said the goal is to slow growth and stabilize numbers, noting that many institutions received far more applications than they were able to admit.

Among them was Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), which was the target of a fraudulent scheme to bring African students to Canada. Hundreds of applications led to only a handful of legitimate admissions.

The ministry says it will hold off on making any conclusions until fall enrolment data is available. In the meantime, the office emphasizes that universities have complete flexibility to revise and adapt their recruitment strategies.