‘An absolute gut punch’: University cuts ripple through Canadian campuses

Genevieve Beauchemin with a look at how budget cuts are impacting campus life at universities.

University professors and students are learning tough lessons about the impact of cuts on their campuses as cash-strapped universities across Canada struggle to find ways to drive down costs. Federal and provincial policy changes have hit English language institutions in Quebec particularly hard.

McGill University announced earlier this month it would slash two dozen varsity and competitive teams for the 2026/2027 season.

When the decision was announced, Track team co-captain Rebecca Warcholak called it an absolute gut punch.

“We felt largely like it was out of the blue. We don’t really understand why it happened,” she said. “A lot of us came here for the program, for the prestige of McGill University, to run with this name on our singlet.”

The slashing of the University’s long-running track and field program sent a jolt through the sports world.

“This is at a world class facility, so this is a blow and a shock,” said the Head Coach of Athletics Canada Glenroy Gilbert. “I am sure the athletes this is impacting are not feeling good about it right now.”

Alumni from all over the world, among them high-profile athletes like Olympic champion sprinter Bruni Surin, are mounting a campaign to push back on the decision and an online petition has gathered thousands of signatures.

But the university has pointed to several factors including budget constraints, saying in a statement that “Simply put, our unit can no longer effectively manage or support the same number of activities while maintaining the standards of excellence expected at McGill.”

Juggling tighter budgets is a reality affecting many universities, as policy changes affecting foreign students are adopted. The federal government plans to cut in half the number of student visas from 306 000 this year, to 155 000 as of 2026.

The Quebec government has brought in foreign student enrollment caps, but it also overhauled the tuition funding structure, that strikes particularly hard for English language universities, which admit a larger share of out-of-province and international students. The Montreal Gazette reported that Concordia university spent $780 000 in legal fees to fight those changes and landed some wins. In an email, Concordia wrote the following:

“We felt we had no other choice but to legally challenge the measures and saw it as an investment to preserve Concordia’s future as well as a way to fight for our values and what we stand for. And indeed, last April, the Superior Court of Quebec ruled against the measures related to out-of-province students and the French requirement, determining they were “unreasonable” and noting that the government provided little factual evidence supporting why the measures were necessary.”

But the cash-strapped university has announced a 7.2 per cent cut across all sectors for the 2025-26 budget. A hiring freeze was enacted and limited-time contracts for 63 faculty members will not be renewed. Sabbaticals have also been cancelled.

Concordia professor Stephen Yeager has taught in the English department since 2009, and the department’s representative at the Concordia University Faculty Association.

“You’ve ripped off all the Band-Aids and there has been a huge impact for almost no savings,” says Yeagar. “The financial savings are miniscule compared to the cuts they are supposed to make. It is not a decision that makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of delivering programs, and it certainly does not make sense from the standpoint of what students want in their own department.”

He says Concordia is not alone in this.

“This is across Canada and the world,” says Yeagar. There is a tendency to cut the budget in ways that affect the quality of the education that is offered to students without enough regard, I would say, to the long term impact on the health of the university.”

Yeager says he doesn’t envy leaders struggling with a dire financial situation. But he believes there are better solutions that could bolster the future of Canadian universities, that include consulting with students about their needs.

“I would try to find out what they want to pay their tuition dollars for, what they want to learn, and how they image that benefitting them in the long run.”

He says university is a space for exploration and self-improvement, and that Canada remains one of the best places in the world to get an education, and so he urges leaders to support the institutions and the benefits they offer.