Conestoga College issued layoff notices to another 32 full-time faculty Monday after plunging into a $33-million operating deficit caused by cratering tuition and falling enrolment.
“This was not a decision made lightly,” said Norma McDonald Ewing, interim college president, in an internal statement emailed to college employees. “While difficult, these decisions are necessary to support the long-term sustainability of the college.”
Professors who received the 90-day notices will be paid for another three months, without courses to teach, before their jobs disappear late in November.
“They’re spread out through different schools,” said Leopold Koff, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 237, and representative for the Conestoga faculty.
There are courses for these professors to teach, but the college is giving the work to part-time instructors instead to save money, Koff said.
The Kitchener-based community college previously laid off 181 professors in March. Further faculty layoffs were planned, but were delayed in May after the province dismissed the board of governors and appointed a supervisor to oversee the college. That delay has ended.
McDonald Ewing said “changes to our staffing complement have been confirmed necessary following a comprehensive review of the college’s operational and financial requirements.”
The college warned in July, it aimed to cut its payroll by $115 million in the current fiscal year. This is a reduction of one-third, in order to trim its projected deficit to $25 million in the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2027.
Koff remains concerned the college will axe more professors, although the faculty union has been given no notice of this.
Since 2025 the college has shuttered campuses, cut programs, and axed professors, support staff, administrators, executives and part-time instructors. It’s estimated 2,780 jobs have disappeared to date, split between full- and part-time positions.
The mood among faculty is not good and “there’s no light at the end of the tunnel right now, from the look of it,” Koff said.
Conestoga’s financial spiral was caused by a collapse in foreign enrolment that began in 2024.
That’s when Canada pulled back on student visas, in a move to limit strains on housing, health care and other public services. Foreign students are prized for the higher tuition they pay.
As foreign enrolment collapsed, the college shed $323 million in tuition in the fiscal year that ended March 31. It forecasts losing a further $129 million in tuition by March 31, 2027, following the departure of two-thirds of foreign students who remain.
The college is leaning into $144 million in savings, built up when foreign tuition soared, to fund successive deficits and return to financial balance, according to its business plan.
Conestoga continues to grow in certain areas. It is expanding its skilled trades campus in Cambridge this fall.
“We continue to advance the initiatives outlined in our business plan, strengthen our focus on areas of demonstrated student and labour market demand, and position the college to serve learners, employers and our communities for years to come,” McDonald Ewing said.
