Mark Kirkpatrick, president of Belleville, Ont., based Loyalist College, says he’s seen better times, as budget constraints have forced his school to cut 24 programs, or 30 per cent of all programs offered.
“We’ve had to make some extremely difficult decisions here at the college,” he said.
Loyalist, like many colleges across the province, had relied on tuition from international students to subsidize a lot of the domestic delivery of its programs. But federal policy changes that limited international student enrolment have impacted post-secondary school funding and led to major program cuts at schools across the country, particularly those in Ontario.
Yet some observers question if this issue has received the attention it deserves during this Ontario election campaign, and ask whether party leaders are offering any workable solutions to stem the loss of these programs.