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Special CamNews��

As we settle into the new school structure, questions around enrolment and how the college is adjusting to the new reality of significantly fewer international students have arisen. The following information should help provide some answers.��

What data is the college using to make decisions to manage course and program capacity?��

The reports that educational leaders use to make determinations on where to adjust capacity include summary reports of historical enrolments that provide course section level detail of enrolments for each semester. We track both program enrolments and individual course enrolments, paying particular attention to student course loads in open enrolment programs and headcounts in seated programs.��

We also closely track applications for each semester, and the progression of students from applied status to moved-to-student status, and the transition rates of applications to enrolments. This data is reviewed on a weekly basis throughout the year as we track intakes for each Summer, Fall, and Winter semester.��

Given the revenue implications of international versus domestic tuition, we also detail our tracking of applications and enrolments by student type, separating domestic from international intake data. For the international intake data, we follow not only the application status with the institution but also the progress of each student towards obtaining study permits. Camosun International monitors visa approval rates and rejections, and regularly follow up with prospective students on progress.��

Through tracking of this data by Chairs, Deans, Camosun International, the Registrar’s office, and Provost’s office, we predict changes in enrolments and make scheduling decisions and adjustments accordingly. There is no single point of data, or single point in time in decision making. It is an ongoing process.��

With this in mind, the greatest drivers of changes in enrolment patterns presently impacting the college, are national immigration policies and the economy, whereby, immigration policies have decimated international student recruitment and the generally depressed economy has supported somewhat higher domestic enrolment.��

The decline in international students is projected to continue into the coming year as current students graduate and move on, and are not replaced by new incoming students. These declines are responsible for both revenue shortfalls and creating areas of excess capacity in programs and departments that have historically supported high international enrolments.��

How is this data informing decision-making for the coming Academic Year?��

The current and anticipated decline in international enrolments and associated revenue has led to the need to make reductions in expenses across the college. As international revenues have supported funding for activities across the college, reductions are being considered broadly across all bargaining units and exempt employees. While these changes may have impacts on service levels in some areas, the goal is to preserve core services.��

At the point of preparing this summary, school leaders and the Provost’s office are tracking incoming data to ensure that we continue to provide learning opportunities for as many students as possible in the coming Summer, Fall, and Winter semesters. Areas of faculty canvassing in schools have been based on data that provides the previous breakdown of domestic and international students, overall enrolments and instructional capacity.��

For example, based on enrolment projections for summer 2025, the School of Business is offering a reduced summer schedule with 20% fewer course sections than summer 2024. This planned reduction has resulted in high utilization of capacity (93%), meeting reduced student demand and realizing significant delivery cost savings.��

This approach is being applied across all program areas to ensure that capacity matches demand. In some cases, this means potential reductions in faculty. Where the need for reduction can be absorbed by reducing term appointments or vacancies, we are able to avoid layoffs. In areas where we are experiencing growth in enrolments, we are seeking to ensure that we fill existing capacity before adding new, and doing our best to avoid turning away students.��

The following tables show comparative program application status for Fall 2025 and Fall 2024 for international and domestic students. Application numbers include both new students and those changing programs. Overall, the college is continuing to trend towards lower international admissions, and also facing declines in domestic applications in many areas relative to the strong growth in domestic numbers in the past year.��

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Unfortunately, some areas of higher domestic applications such as Health and Trades, do not present significant opportunities for growth. With government mandated caps on domestic tuition and the loss of subsidy provided by international tuition, adding seats in higher cost-of-delivery programs presents added financial challenges given the constraints on base funding, specialized teaching spaces, and limits on practicum opportunities.��

How has the school restructure helped with the college’s financial challenges?��

One of the measures the college has taken to find savings has been to restructure schools. The primary impetus of restructuring was to find administrative savings in an environment that had developed significant disparity between the sizes and complexities of each school. The administrative savings have been realized through the overall reduction of school leadership and administrative support positions. Financial savings related to these administrative changes represents more than $1,000,000 of the overall savings target for the institution.��

The structural changes in the schools align with the overall goal of operating a full complement of educational programming with fewer leaders. While there are several ways in which programming could be divided, the objective has been to group like programming wherever possible.��

These groupings also create better balance between the overall size and complexity of each school. Defining balance between the groupings has been done by considering the key sources of complexity from a school leadership perspective, whereby, the two greatest drivers are the numbers of employees and students supported in each unit. The pie charts below show the combined change in distributions of employees and students, from the original to the new school structures. One of the inputs to the new distribution, not captured in the original school distribution, is the addition of Professional Studies and Industry Training into the mix (Trades, Industry, Professional Studies portfolio).��

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Hopefully, this information provides additional clarity on how restructuring is helping to lower administrative costs, while positioning the college for future success, and preserving programs and services. In the end, we trust that Camosun will adapt and thrive as we have through many challenges.��

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