Cambrian College is suspending new intake to another six programs mostly due to federal government policy changes that have caused a drop in international student enrolment.
This adds to the 10 programs it already suspended this past spring for much the same reasons as it projected a $1.4 million deficit for 2025-2026 after a decade of surpluses.
The latest program suspensions were approved by Cambrian’s board at their Nov. 5 meeting.
“In large part, these suspensions are due to the significant reduction of students based on the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) policy change,” said Cambrian vice-president, academic Janice Clarke.
According to figures obtained by Sudbury.com, Cambrian’s preliminary enrolment figures show there are 1,430 international students this fall, down from 2,631 last fall. Domestic students stand at 3,840, compared to 3,516 last fall.
Although new intake for the suspended programs is being stopped, current students in these programs will be able to complete their studies.
The latest round of suspended programs are fitness and health promotion diploma, business analytics graduate certificate, marketing management, supply chain management graduate certificate, corporate safety and security certificate and community and justice services diploma.
Six full-time faculty members are being impacted by the latest program suspensions, but the college is working through a process with the Cambrian Employment Stability Committee to determine whether they will be able to teach in other programs.
The same thing happened with the seven faculty members who were impacted by the previous program suspensions this past spring.
Following the Nov. 5 meeting, Sudbury.com reached out to OPSEU Local 655 president Neil Shyminsky, who represents Cambrian College faculty.
The drop in international students at Cambrian and, “frankly, everywhere” has been “pretty catastrophic,” he said.
Asked about the further cuts to international student visas announced in this week’s federal budget, Shyminsky said Canada’s brand has already been so damaged by the actions to date, he’s not sure any schools will be able to fill even the reduced seat allotments.
The latest suspensions at Cambrian aren’t “a surprise, and our energy has just been devoted to trying to save as many jobs as we can,” said Shyminsky.
With bumping, the impact of program suspensions multiplies, as one full-time faculty member could end up displacing multiple part-time employees, he said.
In terms of faculty members impacted this past spring, Shyminsky said he can’t be too specific about what happened with them, since it’s a confidential process.
“Without saying anything specific, we've been very satisfied on the union end of things with how willing the college is to work with us and to find creative solutions when we enter these discussions of reassigning people,” he said.
“That is not the case across the province. There are several colleges where the college is just ignoring the requirements to consult with the union local before anybody is laid off.
“And that, thankfully, is not happening at Cambrian. The college is eager to not just inform us of what's going on, but to engage us in those conversations about trying to save people's jobs.”
With most of the programs suspended this week, international students would no longer be eligible for a post-graduate work permit if they enrolled in these programs under updated rules released in June.
An example is supply chain management, a program that was launched in 2020, which had a peak of 165 new students in the 2023-2024 school year, 163 of which were international students.
But with the program having been dropped from the work permit eligibility list, no students were projected to enrol this fall. The college said it is “not financially viable without international students.”
The community and justice services diploma, which has been around since 1986, had a larger proportion of domestic students, although enrolment was dwindling.
“We always had a few international students that helped our numbers and helped our liability,” said Clarke, but with this program having been removed from the work permit eligibility list, “the loss of international students was maybe the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Because they’re just suspended, not cancelled, Cambrian could bring these programs back any time in the next five years “without having to go to the ministry,” said Cambrian president Kristine Morrissey.
If the federal government “makes a different decision, which is not unlikely, we may turn the switch back on and it (the program) fills up again. So we have that flexibility.”
Besides the six suspended programs, Cambrian also decided to do a “records cleanup,” and cancel 19 programs that have not been run in some time, some going back as far as 2011-12, as well as one that was never launched.
One program on that list is the bachelor in science in nursing - collaborative nursing program (last offered in 2021-22), which Cambrian used to run with Laurentian University. Cambrian has since launched its own standalone nursing degree program.
Other notable programs cancelled this week include Cambrian’s former theatre arts technical production diploma (last offered in 2017-18) and its music performance advanced diploma (last offered in 2020-21).
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.