No 'silver bullet' to address shortfall at UPEI, people at budget open house are told

With international student enrolment down, a shortfall in revenue, and questions around its recent $202.9 million budget, the University of Prince Edward Island leadership held an open house on campus Wednesday to dive into the numbers for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

UPEI president Wendy Rodgers and vice-president of administration and finance Tim Walker spoke to a room of dozens, breaking down how much revenue is coming into the school and how much will have to be spent in the coming year.

"I'm trying to give them the confidence that, yes, we are going to be constraining our expenses, but not at the expense of our quality and our reputation," Rodgers said. 

"We need to be able to grow our reputation."

The breakdown of where UPEI will get its operating revenue for the entire campus, including the Atlantic Veterinary College and the new medical school in affiliation with Memorial University, is as follows:

• 31.4 per cent from tuition and student fees;
• 27.4 per cent from restricted grants;
• 23.8 per cent from unrestricted grants;
• 10.2 per cent from sales and service;
• 6.2 per cent from ancillary sales; and
• 1.1 per cent from donations and investment.

The total expenses for the entire school are broken down as follows:

• 71.8 per cent for salaries and benefits;
• 6.8 per cent for supplies;
• 5.6 per cent listed as "other";
• 4.5 per cent for utilities;
• 4.5 per cent for equipment and financing;
• 2.7 per cent for contracted services;
• 2.3 per cent for repairs; and
• 1.7 per cent for scholarships.

Overall spending at UPEI is up 11 per cent compared to last year's budget. To cover some of that increase, the university is raising tuition fees by 6.5 per cent for Canadian students and 7.5 per cent for international students, starting in the fall semester.

The P.E.I. government has pitched in $2 million to help UPEI, in light of lower international student enrolment. 

We're going to continue to work on partnerships with government, and we're going to work on all our other revenue-generating strategies to shore ourselves up so we can balance that budget in the least painful way possible.— Wendy Rodgers

The school has also said that while it is not laying off existing staff, it may not fill some positions that are set to be vacant by the end of the year due to retirements or other reasons. 

Rodgers said making up those revenues across the board will require effort from the entire campus.

"We're going to continue to work on partnerships with government, and we're going to work on all our other revenue-generating strategies to shore ourselves up so we can balance that budget in the least painful way possible next year," Rodgers said.

"That's what we're going to do."

'There's no one thing'

The bottom line is the school is trying to cover roughly $10 million, Walker said at the open house. So far, they've accounted for about half of that, and are left with a projected shortfall of $5.4 million.

Walker said the shortfall is the direct result of lower enrolment and thus lower tuition revenues, negotiated increases in salaries and benefits, and a number of other items.

The Charlottetown-based school is asking departments to come forward with any creative ideas they may have for reducing spending or bringing in cash.

"I don't want to count on government or our students for any of this. I'd like to deal with the problem internally. But it is not possible to do so," Walker said in an interview after his presentation. 

"You can't just cut all the things and maintain the quality of the student experience and academic integrity… There's no silver bullet. There's no one thing. All the tools in the toolbox are going to have to be applied to this problem."