Queen’s University first showed signs of financial strain in March 2020, when it projected its first operating deficit in years. It has since spiraled into fiscal quagmire.
The University forecasted a $62.8 million operating deficit for the 2023-24 academic year last May, and later revised the projection to a $48 million deficit in December. To continue operating, Queen’s will dip into reserve funds, or surpluses it accumulated from previous years, according to a university FAQ page.
Although reserve funds act as a financial cushion, the University is taking austerity measures.
With potential cuts to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) academic programming and potential faculty layoffs on the horizon, students and staff aired their grievances during a accusing the University of lacking transparency while voicing fears of budget cuts affecting their education.
“I’m concerned about the survival of this institution,” Provost Matthew Evans said at the town hall, quoted in a Journal article.
But Queen’s isn’t alone. Near half of universities in Ontario—10 out of the province’s 23 ed universities—are facing fiscal deficits, the Toronto Star reported.
Pressures are mounting against many Ontario universities due to high inflation, low international student enrolment, and tuition fee restraints, according to Queen’s rating report from Morningstar DBRS.
“Relative to its rated peers, we believe that Queen’s University has one of the stronger academic profiles, relatively greater financial flexibility […] and the ability to address short-term pressures through disciplined budget management,” Aditi Joshi, vice-president of credit ratings at Morningstar DBRS, said in an emailed statement to The Journal.
Queen’s was lauded in the report for its “effective management practices” and solid AA rating, but the erosion of the University’s reserves may lead to a downgrade.
Student tuition revenue has mainly taken a hit due to low international enrolment numbers—and graduate student enrolment, in Queen’s case. International student revenue was initially affected by pandemic-related restrictions, Joshi said.
“More recently visa issues and international tensions have played a bigger role in inhibiting enrolment growth,” Joshi added.
The University acknowledged embarking on longer-term “recruitment and retention” strategies to combat low international enrolment figures in the DBRS report.
Ontario’s tuition freeze, which cut university tuition rates by 10 per cent starting in 2019, cost the University an estimated $180 million so far, according to a Queen’s FAQ page. Before the measure, tuition in Ontario was the highest out of any province, according to a press release from the Ontario government.
“Universities in Ontario are facing similar pressures driven by a challenging operating environment, particularly a constrained funding and tuition fee framework which limits revenue-generating flexibility,” Joshi said.
It isn’t unusual for extraordinary pressures to lead universities toward budget measures, Joshi said.
“Staffing cuts and other adjustments are always difficult but sometimes necessary to respond to sustained changes in enrolment and budget trends,” Joshi added.
Queen’s says it is making every effort to limit its impact on staff, but wants to remain competitive and continue teaching the “highest calibre” students.
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TERRY AUSTIN
We have reached a tipping point. University education once lauded is now questionable as far as future work is concerned. College focus and the trades arethe best option for many student’s in Canada
Har Sara
All anyone needs to do to know why this is really happening is check the Sunshine List for their profs names. SO many people in university settings are making well over 100K. The schools can’t afford that, and expect students and guest lecturers to make up the difference. I think around 75K is way more appropriate salary for a prof, but it’s often more like 185K.
Boyd Hartley
All these universities relied too much on international revenue. Maybe if everybody started taking payouts at the top You could control it But instead they wanna blame the government on tuition fee freezes I call bullshit. Get your books in order.
James McDonald
I have no idea why no one states the obvious: the salaries paid to professors, many well in excess of $250,000 are just that… excessive.
Clean house and start paying salaries that more accurately reflect the actual financial situation. Relying on foreign students is a bizarre form of 21st century Colonialism that flies in the face of the woke environment which Queen’s loves to embrace.
Ammar
One missing piece in this distorted picture is enormous underuse and abuse of physical (i.e., buildings) and laboratory (instrumentation) resources. A deep dive is mandatory to find what resources lans have, how much it has cost to get and maintain them and then identify the academic return on these investments to find out how much this contributes to the posted deficit!
Karin
Queen’s charged BISC students full tuition for a school some students didn’t even get to go to during the pandemic, and in this last semester with the structural damage to the castle. $40,000 for an experience you don’t even get to have?
David Thomas
The tuition freeze was and is ludicrous. I would love to see an analysis of what benefits this generated, other than landlords being able to reach even deeper into student pockets.
Shirley Solomon
Queen’s just received an undeserved $150 million dollar donation. Jewish students at Queen’s are threatened, persecuted and live in fear. They walk in groups to avoid being attacked. Swastikas on dorm walls, religious Jewish icons are torn off dorm doors, Jewish students hide their religious Star’s of David necklaces under the clothes and their kippas (religious caps) while pro terrorists proudly wear kaffirs. Professors malign Israel and tell students not to shop at stores owned by Jewish shopkeeper in Kingston where an enormous sign call to KILL THE JEWS hangs. Kingston police stand outside Chabad synagogue to protect hundreds of Jewish students from threats of violence and killing Jews. Queen’s does NOTHING to protect Jewish students from harm despite pleas from Jewish students who live in fear. SHAME ON QUEEN’S for not giving a damn this out of control Jew hatred. Queen’s is being sued for allowing and enabling ongoing antisemitism and not protecting innocent Jewish students from cries of kill the Jews, gas the Jews. Fire the overpaid President, vice president just like Claudine Gay was fired at Harvard. Do not DONATE money to this Jew Hating racist cesspool
Queensemployee
Matthew Evans is a hatchet man with a bad reputation. They hired him to make this seem inevitable and to be the fall guy for bad management choices.
Andrew Eden-Balfour
It’s abundantly clear that the freeze on domestic tuition us unsustainable. This is why Ontario universities have to rely on international students.
Jeff
Mutli-million dollar operating deficits? Where’s all the money from the booming years gone? Surely some was saved in a rainy day fund for when things wouldn’t be going so great. Sound financial planning. Perhaps not. Hopefully they don’t run a business istration degree program because this would be a poor example.
Rob McAllister
Of course, it’s much easier to blame the government than to face the obvious reality of a bloated bureaucracy with obscenely overcompensated istrative and academic staff.
Jared Vaughan
May these Woke institutions keep contracting.
Paul Valentine
Is this karma for divesting from hydrocarbons in your endowment?
Paul Wilson
Just look at the FAS web page and scroll through the list of departments and their faculty . I was shocked at the number of programs and the high number of faculty , many of them with dubious teaching and research interests. (And quite repetitive with a lot of overlap). I imagine all but a few are on the sunshine list. There is no way that this is sustainable financially given the low enrollment (and lack of interest) in these courses. The focus on EDII seems to overwhelm when the reality is that it is of little or no concern to students seeking the skills they need to get a job. It’s time to cut by half the number of departments and faculty in FAS and guess what? It’s job-hunting time!
Angelo Varriano
istrative and executive positions have EXPLODED in numbers since I have been associated with Queen’s (1977). We now hear that this already bloated istration will spend more money on consulting to help save money. Ludicrous! What on earth are all the bookkeepers and ants current employed by Queen’s doing all day? Are they unable or unqualified to analyze and control expenses? Over the years I have watched rampant waste in countless areas. No private enterprise would handle money with such recklessness. Clearly, academics do not necessarily make good managers of the university’s finances.