By Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal
Confederation College is not alone in being forced to make hard financial choices and suspend programs. Of the 24 colleges in Ontario, 16 of them have also recently suspended programs.
Michelle Salo, Confederation College president, said that amounts to more than 300 programs across Ontario, which is a significant impact across the Ontario college system.
“On Wednesday, we made the very difficult decision to suspend 11 programs. This decision was not made lightly,” Salo said, citing recent policy changes through the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), low domestic enrolment and financial sustainability.
“These are very important programs to the school, but it was important to make this decision for the future financial viability of Confederation College.”
Aaron Skillen, the college’s vice-president of academic, explained that caps on international students for the college in the 2025 calendar year results in an allocation of 1,544 provincial attestation letters.
“Those are letters that must accompany a student’s application to the (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) for a study permit to study with us here at Confederation College,” Skillen said, adding that the school’s initial allocation in the 2024 calendar year was 1,929.
“We did take a decline of around 20 per cent of our allocation.”
Salo added that the college, together with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce and the Community Economic Development Commission, have tirelessly advocated for immigration changes for the Northwest and plan to continue in their advocacy strategies.
The program suspensions come on the heels of the college’s new partnership with Seneca Polytechnique, the possibility of developing a veterinarian course and the expansion of the school’s aviation program.
“The suspensions don’t impact those (proposed courses) and they’re our response to try and make the college more viable,” Salo said. “We’re continuing to look at opportunities around partnerships and program development to make sure that we have an everlasting presence here in Northwestern Ontario.”
Skillen pointed out the distinction between a program cancellation and a program suspension.
“Cancellation means we would have no intention to have that program ever again,” he said. “A suspension allows us the possibility of revisiting that program at a future date . . . and if the circumstances change in a favourable manner that allow us to be more optimistic on a higher enrolment or allow us to deliver these programs in a more financially sustainable way, then we’ll certainly be open to revisiting that.”
At least 54 students or four per cent of the overall domestic student intake in this upcoming fall semester will be impacted by the suspensions.
“We’ve reached out to every one of those students,” Skillen said. “As of Wednesday, we’re discussing options on the next steps for them. We’re certainly hopeful that they’ll find another program here at Confederation College that interests them,” said Skillen, adding that the current students in these programs will be able to complete their studies. There is no impact here with these programs.
Salo says the school’s focus has always been to provide domestic students with opportunities in Northwestern Ontario.
“The reality is that our domestic numbers have been declining. Our population has been declining, and we’ve seen some migration to university versus colleges,” she said. “This was a responsible way to provide these programs to our domestic students in small numbers while we’re able to attract international students to fill those seats. So in our perspective, it was a very responsible thing to do. Growth in our international student enrolment over the past decade is very much in line with our decrease in domestic student enrolment over that same time.”
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