VICTORIA— Despite mounting financial crises on campuses, the BC government’s 2025 Budget fails to invest in post-secondary education and ignores the needs of students and institutions. Students’ longstanding calls for increased funding to the provincial operating grants provided to BC’s 25 public post-secondary institutions continue to go unanswered.

BC’s post-secondary institutions are facing severe financial deficits, leading to widespread staff and faculty layoffs over the past year. Vital services, programs and course offerings are also being slashed as institutions project further financial struggles. The situation has been exacerbated by a sharp decline in international student enrollment following the federal government’s cap on international study permits introduced beginning in March 2024 – which has subsequently reduced international enrolment by more than 40%.

“The provincial government encouraged and enabled international student recruitment as a means for institutions to balance their budgets to make up for a lack of public funding, despite advocates warning of the precarity of relying on student fees and enrolment as a main source of funding,” said Jessie Niikoi, Chairperson of the BC Federation of Students. “We would have liked to see emergency funding for institutions struggling with budget deficits, or investments in annual operating funding. The government must step up to prevent more cuts and layoffs on campuses and to ensure current and future students have access to a well-funded system of post-secondary education.”

Although there are no direct cuts, Budget 2025 maintains current post-secondary budget levels but fails to make up for years of underfunding into this public service. Further, Budget 2025 provides a $4 billion contingency that once again is not earmarked to address the current budgetary complications caused by the federal government’s reduction on international student permits.

In recent years, the proportion of public funding to BC colleges and universities has dropped to nearly 40% of general operating revenue, down from ~80% in the 1980s. Tuition fees – in particular an overreliance on international student tuition fees – now make up more than 50% of institutions’ general operating revenue. This downloading of costs onto students and their families continues to push post-secondary education out of reach for those who need it the most, while masking the government’s underfunding.

“Students will have less programs and courses to choose from, which means our workforce will be less diverse and it will take longer to graduate,” said Niikoi. “Colleges and universities are economic anchors in communities across the province – they provide education and employment for those who live in the surrounding area. Without urgent investment, the government is putting students’ futures and the province’s economy at risk.”

By 2030, BC is expected to have created nearly one million jobs, over 80% of which will require some level of post-secondary education. Yet without funding increases, fewer students will be able to afford the education they need, worsening labour shortages and deepening inequality. We are calling on the government to recognise how its lack of adequate and continuous investment into post-secondary is harming BC’s economy, as well as young people. The Federation is committed to working with the BC government and all MLAs to ensure students and their familiars are not left behind while building a more inclusive, accessible and vibrant British Columbia.