The provincial government’s Budget 2025 ignores what students are up against. A crisis of funding brought on by international student enrolment caps, increasing numbers of layoffs at post-secondary institutions across BC, and closing campuses have left students floundering in the midst of their education. The future workforce has been decidedly neglected. But this is nothing new.
For decades, students have felt the squeeze of the government’s lack of post-secondary funding. Specifically, trades programs got the raw end of a reorganization deal in 2003, and international students in particular are pushed around.
In September 2023, the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) wrote Fund it. Fix it. In the report, the BCFS details what’s happened and makes recommendations for repairing decades of damage caused by inadequate funding to post-secondary education, changes to trades programs, and amendments to legislation to protect international students from unregulated tuition fees. It’s an eye-opening read.
I’ve been in and out of post-secondary institutions for 30 years. Over that time, I’ve seen the BC and federal governments cancel interest on student loans (which not all provinces have done), and tuition fees go up, and up, and up.
However, before my time, in the 1980s, the government funded 80 percent of the operational costs of colleges and universities in BC; in recent years it’s dropped to 41 percent. Students pay the difference through tuition and ancillary fees, with international students facing most of the financial burden.
International students are attractive for aiding with decreased government funding most particularly because they pay higher tuition. In fact, these students paid 426 percent more than domestic students in 2022/23, based on tuition and fees. International students don’t contribute to taxes that the government uses to pay for post-secondary education—something that’s often used as justification for their high tuition—but they’re still used as cash cows.
While domestic students have a two-percent annual cap on tuition fees, international students do not. There’s no limit to their increases. In 2022, Emily Carr University increased fees for new international students by 30 percent and returning ones by 10 percent to balance their budget.
Unexpected increases cause international students to scramble to pay their tuition; it also puts their visas in jeopardy if they cannot pay the increase. The remedy is simple: BCFS recommends a cap on increases for international students. Post-secondary institutions have been able to get away with using international students as banks to balance their budgets, rather than having the government properly funding the institutions. Budget 2025 doubles down on this system.
Former premier Christy Clark paved the way for over-reliance on international students back in the 2010s, when the sale of education to these students at a profit became part of the funding model. The goal was to recruit 50 percent more international students (40,000 students) to combat an aging workforce. This funding model needs to change. Colleges and universities cannot be reliant upon international students to pick up the tab for the province’s inability to properly fund post-secondary education.
In 2015, students began contributing more than the provincial government to the operating costs of post-secondary institutions. In the 2025 budget, the BC NDP pats itself on the back for its investments when in reality it has continually cut funding in the past, along with every government before them. At least now there’s a freeze on cuts, but still no new investments into keeping colleges and universities afloat.
Budget 2025 says that the province has made investments to “help close the skills gap many businesses are facing.” But the government’s track record isn’t promising. Let’s talk about how it helped “close the skills gap” for nurses during a nurse shortage.
In an effort to expand health-care programs at Okanagan College, the provincial government cancelled their Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2023, forcing current students to complete their degree at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Nursing students who were currently enrolled not only were forced into larger classes at UBC Okanagan, but they had to pay approximately $4,000 more in tuition and fees for the last two years of their degree. How is higher tuition for a nursing degree helping close the skills gap? This has only made becoming a nurse less affordable, deterring individuals less economically fortunate from entering the field.
The provincial government claims in Budget 2025 that their Future Ready Action Plan, aiming to build a secure, sustainable, and strong economy, “works for everyone.”
First off, the plan intends to add one million jobs over the next 10 years. However, the majority of those jobs require post-secondary education. If people can’t afford an education because the government has chosen not to properly invest into education, who will fill the jobs they create?
Budget 2025 also addresses “improving access to post-secondary education by expanding grants and scholarships, creating more tech seats and increased student loan maximums.”
What they haven’t addressed is how the government will expand grants and scholarships without increasing funding over the next three years. Indeed, it is the bank that will now support students, leaving them stranded when their Liberal Arts degrees don’t pay them back.
There’s a false assurance of good news for those of us with student loans—we get tax credits. Unfortunately, this is superficial. The BCFS recommends that the government take the $75 million in tax credits and add that to grants to aid with tuition and books. If the government can afford to give students tax credits—which may give a boost to a tax refund—then why not just give it to them in a grant with their student loans? A refund is kind, but so is less debt.
Another industry with a “skills gap” is trades. According to the BC Federation of Labour (BCFED), this was caused by changes made back in 2003, when the Industrial Trade Authority was established. Apprenticeship supports were discontinued, and there was a lack of compulsory trade certifications.
While getting students into the workforce quicker may appear advantageous, BC also has the highest workplace injuries out of any province. Even with decreases in workplace accidents in recent years across the country, BC still holds the top spot. The difference is that other provinces have stricter compulsory certification requirements. BCFED says they believe there’s a link between less education and injuries.
The lost apprenticeship supports make it more difficult for people to explore trade options prior to school as well as find apprenticeships while in school. This contributes to lower enrolment and a decrease in certification completions.
Budget 2025, with its lack of attention to loud concerns on campus, serves as a reminder that students are affected, some more than others. But all students, instructors, and future employers will feel the strain with the continual and unaddressed deterioration of the post-secondary system. We’re all losing. What’s worse: it’s been a long, predictable road to this current crisis.