Sheridan College to suspend 40 programs and reduce staff, citing drop in enrolment

Sheridan College says it's putting 40 programs on hold and laying off staff as it faces a dramatic drop in enrolment.

The college estimates that it will have about 30 per cent fewer students next year, resulting in a $112-million drop in revenue, according to a statement from its president, Janet Morrison. 

An additional 27 programs will undergo an "efficiency review," Morrison said. 

"These changes are required for Sheridan to remain a financially sustainable and vibrant community in response to chronic underfunding, changing government policies, and social, technological, and economic disruption," Morrison said. 

"Sheridan will look different, but our commitment to learning, discovery and engagement remains the same." 

The programs being suspended include 13 in the faculty of applied science and technology, 13 business programs, six in the faculty of animation, arts and design, five in the faculty of applied health and community studies and three in humanities and social sciences. 

Students who are currently enrolled in these programs will still be able to graduate, the college's website says.

Sheridan College is the latest school to face financial challenges after the federal government announced a cap on study permits for international post-secondary students. The government has said the cap is meant to reduce the number of new student visas by more than a third this year. 

Ottawa said it would approve approximately 360,000 undergraduate study permits for 2024 — a 35 per cent reduction from 2023.

In September, the federal Liberal government said it would further slash the number of international student permits it issues by 10 per cent. 

Deciding how to divvy up the allocation of permits among post-secondary institutions is up to the provincial government, which announced in March that colleges would face the biggest drop in their international student numbers. 

The Ford government's 2024 budget revealed that Ontario's colleges will lose out on $3.1 billion in revenue over the next two years from the expected drop in international student enrolment.

Low levels of public funding for Ontario colleges

Morrison's statement doesn't blame the international student cap directly, but a backgrounder posted on the college's website does point to "shrinking domestic enrolment" and "dramatic shifts in government policy" as factors.

Jack Urowitz, Sheridan faculty member and president of OPSEU Local 244, which represents professors, librarians and counsellors at the school, said the cap is the "straw that broke the camel's back" — but he also pointed to declining provincial funding in recent decades.

Ontario currently provides funding of roughly 16 per cent per college student, among the lowest level of any province in the country. Urowitz said when he began in the college system in the 1980s, funding per student was as high as 70 per cent.

"One of the ways they tried to save the system was by in importing international students who did not have a freeze on their tuition," Urowitz told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday. In 2019, the Progressive Conservative government reduced college tuition fees for domestic students by 10 per cent and has frozen those fees since then.

Urowitz said the financial pressures on Ontario's colleges will ultimately impact the province, with fewer graduates ready to step into jobs right after graduation.

"It's going to harm the workforce," he said.

Dayna Smockum, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Colleges and Universities, said the province will continue to support the post-secondary sector to ensure students can get good paying, in-demand jobs once they graduate.

She pointed out that in February, the government announced a $1.3-billion boost to post-secondary funding spread out over the next three years

However, she said staffing decisions and human resource matters "lie solely with the institutions."