Changes by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) affecting international student recruitment are leading to questions around enrolment numbers, labour adjustments and how Selkirk College will navigate the changing post-secondary landscape.

We have compiled some frequently asked questions and provided answers. This is a dynamic situation, and these FAQs will be refreshed as new information becomes available. Please check back for updates.

What is happening with international student enrolment?

In January 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) placed a cap on international student enrolment. This cap was in response to the federal government's change of direction regarding targets set on immigration, and the actions of some bad actors in the Ontario and private college sector. For Selkirk College, this meant we’d be able to recruit about 200 fewer international students (our new maximum would be 750) than our peak number in 2018/19. This policy change sent a message to overseas markets that Canada was becoming less open to international students. The impact on our college would have been challenging but manageable over the next few years.

This past fall, IRCC made several more changes. Among the most impactful were the restrictions on post-graduation work permits (PGWP) for college graduates and the removal of the Student Direct Stream, which expedited student visa processing for certain countries. The PGWP change is largely responsible for the dramatic drop in international student applications. It means that college graduates can only apply for a PGWP if they graduate from certain programs that align with national (not regional) job market demands, such as health, engineering and agriculture. Graduates in hospitality and tourism, business, and university arts and sciences (which the majority of international students at Selkirk College study) are no longer eligible.

International students typically come to Canadian colleges because education is the first step on a pathway to permanent residency (PR). They can get Canadian job training, which then leads to a PGWP (i.e., Canadian work experience), which, in turn, facilitates PR. Removing the ability to get a PGWP makes it much more challenging for students to get PR, so they may choose to go to university or another country instead. In addition, the negative rhetoric and public discourse have damaged the Canadian education brand, with the result that among students abroad, Canada has dropped from first choice to fourth since last year. Students planning to study abroad want stability, predictability and safety, and these things are now in question in the Canadian landscape.

Have we suspended or cancelled any programs as a result of the IRCC reforms?

We have suspended intakes of the following programs:

• Culinary Management – Postgraduate Diploma
• Accounting – Postgraduate Diploma
• Business Management – Postgraduate Diploma
• Hospitality Management – Postgraduate Diploma
• Postgraduate Diploma in Gerontological Nursing

Do the IRCC changes affect international students who arrived before November 2024?

Most of these changes apply only to international students starting in January 2025 and later. For students who arrived any time before November 2024, the main changes are:

• They can no longer work 40 hours per week while attending classes. The limit is 24 hours per week.
• They will need to write another English proficiency test before receiving a work permit.

Students who arrived prior to November 2024 may still be eligible for work permits upon graduation, even if their field of study does not align with national labour demands. For the most up to date information, please visit IRCC.

What is the timeline for labour adjustments?

We are still working through the final details on which areas will be affected. Prior to the holidays, deans will be reaching out to some employees for preliminary workload discussions. Deans and directors will meet with SCFA and BCGEU employees who may be impacted by labour adjustments in advance of the targeted canvas that will take place January 15-29, 2025. The purpose of the targeted canvas is to identify volunteer solutions that may provide viable options to reduce the number of potential layoff notices in the targeted areas.

Layoff notices will be issued following the canvas period, as outlined within the applicable collective agreement, after all volunteer solutions have been considered. As noted previously, all current short-term and non-regular contracts will be honoured through the end of their term.

This contraction will then create ripple effects that lead to a second phase of layoffs in spring/summer 2025 for all other areas and employee groups of the college. There will likely be a third phase in late 2025/early 2026 as our current cohort of international students completes their education and we start to see the full effects of the IRCC restrictions. Throughout this period, we’ll be working to ensure ongoing supports for affected employees.

What’s happening to the ideas we’re submitting for mitigating impacts of these changes?

Deans, directors and union leadership are sharing ideas with the executive leadership team. You can also meet directly with Taya, Lareena or Brier with suggestions. The executive team includes Maggie M., Lareena, Taya, Brier and Stacey. They meet frequently to discuss enrolment updates, people and program impacts, as well as suggestions from the college community.

This FAQ document, which will be updated regularly, is an idea from our college community. Furthermore, there is a list at the end of this document where we provide responses to the suggestions you’ve submitted to date.

Why can’t we just cut expenses down to the bone to avoid layoffs and just hang on until this passes, like we did during COVID-19?

We continue to see cost savings from some of the process changes made during COVID-19. However, there are fewer opportunities for reducing expenses now, and it’s harder to find ways to do this without seriously impacting our culture, the quality of education we provide and our ability to operate effectively.

The reality is that we’re looking at an $8M deficit next year, and no amount of discretionary cost cutting will address that. In addition, the enrolment impacts of these IRCC decisions are larger and will have longer-term impacts than COVID-19. We are unlikely to see student numbers recover for at least the next three to five years because the damage to “Brand Canada” has been done. And while domestic enrolment is rising slowly, it’s not enough to fill the gap left by lower international enrolment. Unlike many other colleges, we don’t have an unrestricted accumulated surplus we can draw from to help us manage our cash flow. If we don’t reduce our staffing levels to better align with actual enrolment, we may not be able to meet our financial obligations.

Why aren’t you marketing my program to boost enrolment right now?

We understand the impulse to boost marketing and recruitment efforts right now, especially for those programs facing challenges.

However, we're at a critical juncture, where hasty promotional efforts distributed across many programs would likely yield minimal results, especially given our limited resources. Instead, we're taking a step back to develop a more strategic, targeted approach. This will allow us to:

• Identify which programs have the most potential for growth or recovery
• Allocate our limited resources more effectively
• Create more impactful campaigns that are likely to get better results

We believe this focused strategy will ultimately benefit more programs in the long run, rather than spreading our resources too thin across all programs. We're committed to supporting our faculty and programs, and this approach gives us the best chance of doing that successfully.

Why isn’t the provincial government helping us?

The provincial government has been working very closely with the colleges to learn the impacts of these changes. They are advocating that the federal government pull back on some of the policies hurting colleges in particular. In terms of financial assistance, the government is facing a deficit of $9B this coming year and a debt of over $70B, and we are not getting any signals that additional core funding is coming. While normally, colleges are not allowed to submit a deficit budget, the government began allowing this during COVID-19 and may allow us to continue doing this if we can provide a plan to achieve a balanced budget over the next few years. Selkirk College’s projected deficit for 2025/26 is about $8M, based on a $65M budget.

Are these changes impacting management and exempt positions, or just union positions?

All employee groups at the college will be affected. We anticipate a first phase of layoffs of mostly student-facing roles linked to the decline in international enrolment. This will create ripple effects that lead to a second phase of layoffs in spring/summer 2025 for all other areas and employee groups of the college. There will likely be a third phase in late 2025/early 2026 as our current cohort of international students completes their education and we start to see the full effects of the IRCC restrictions. Throughout this period, we’ll be working to ensure ongoing supports for affected employees.

What is Selkirk College actually doing about this? It doesn’t seem like there’s any action to prevent layoffs.

We understand the frustration and anxiety this situation is causing, but it’s important that we make thoughtful, strategic choices, as opposed to hasty, more reactive responses.

These are unusual circumstances, with ongoing immigration policy announcements sending us back to the drawing board each time. We’re also trying to make the most accurate assumptions possible around application numbers for 2025/26, and we won’t get a sense of that until late fall/early winter.

The unavoidable fact is that if we don’t have as many students, we don’t need as many staff. Our region’s slow growth and aging population make domestic recruitment increasingly challenging, and we haven’t yet been able to promote a distinctive identity that would attract students from outside the region. Our new strategy, with its focus on linking all of our programs to a sense of land and place, will help us with that, but it will take several years to get there.

Members of the executive leadership team meet daily on these issues, sharing new information, building scenarios and considering new ideas that might help us reduce the impact of the situation. We’re also advocating to be treated the same as the universities (i.e., for college graduates to qualify for post-graduation work permits without being restricted by program).

We’re being as transparent and forthcoming as we can, and we appreciate your patience as we work our way through this.

College Community Suggestions

Thank you everyone, for putting thought into some innovative ideas to mitigate future layoffs. We really appreciate your level of engagement in this process. As you know, we’re currently facing resource constraints that will limit our ability to immediately implement all of these ideas. Our finances and workforce are in transition, making it really challenging to act on many of these suggestions right away. That being said, we’re saving all the ideas we’ve received as many of them could be implemented to support our strategic plan in the future.

In the meantime, the executive leadership team is looking at all of the ideas to:

• Identify and prioritize low-resource, high-impact proposals
• Explore phased implementation of ideas that align with our strategy

Our immediate focus needs to be on solutions that can be implemented quickly and with minimal additional resources. We'll keep you updated on implementation possibilities as our resources become clearer.

Ideas we’ve received to date include:

1. Cut professional development (PD) to save money.
2. Cut travel and move to virtual meetings.
3. Suspend the computer loan and e-bike program.
4. Create a new program in “X” to meet emerging demand.
5. Suspend college staff and team events.
6. Strengthen relationships with local high schools to bolster recruitment.
7. Promote retention and recruitment by providing more on-campus activities and extending facility hours.
8. Expand online offerings and partner with international institutions.
9. Offer more scholarships to promote domestic enrolment.
10. Offer flexible payment plans to make it easier for students to pay for college.
11. Strengthen community partnerships with more co-op opportunities and apprenticeships.
12. Promote greater alumni engagement to encourage more donations.
13. Increase the number of permanent recruiter positions.
14. Increase marketing and the types of promotional events we go to.
15. Allow the community learning centres to admit students.
16. Offer new continuing education and modular courses, boot camps, and summer sessions.
17. Generate revenues by offering catering or other services (as part of our educational offerings) to the community at large.
18. Engage in new marketing and recruitment strategies – college wide and program specific.