The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) is facing serious funding challenges caused by a decline in enrollment by international students, at the same time the Alberta government has imposed a two per cent cap on increases in tuition and fees for domestic students.

According to the 2025 expert panel on post-secondary institution funding, student tuition and fees made up 23 per cent of the total revenue for Alberta colleges and universities in the 2018-2019 school year.

That jumped up to 31 per cent during the 2023-2024 school year, as provincial funding dropped by 10 per cent over the same period.

Like many post-secondary institutions in Alberta, SAIT had grown increasingly reliant on funding from international student enrollment to make up for cuts in government funding.

According to the 2025 expert panel, the amount of tuition and fees paid by international students grew from just under $362 million during the 2020-2021 school year (seven per cent of total revenue) to $670 million during the 2023-2024 school year (10 per cent of total revenue).

During the same time, the percentage of total revenue from tuition and fees paid by domestic students remained flat at 14 per cent.

But following concerns raised by some provinces about the soaring number of international students, the impact on housing, and the sometimes questionable programs they were being enrolled in, the federal government slashed the number of permits being issued for international students to study in Canada — from over a million in 2024 to about 725,000 by Sept. 2025.

In an email to Global News, the SAIT Academic Faculty Association confirmed 30 permanent faculty positions are being cut.

SAIT declined an interview request from Global News on Friday.

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Instead, spokesperson Chris Gerritsen said in an emailed statement, “Like post‑secondary institutions across Canada, SAIT has been impacted by recent changes to federal international student policies. These changes have resulted in a decline in enrolment, requiring the institution to make difficult but necessary budget adjustments. We are currently working through organizational and workforce adjustments.”

“I don’t think it’s surprising at all that we’re seeing institutions have to make cuts because of decreased international students,” said Tiffany MacLennan, a senior research associate with the consulting group Higher Education Strategy Associates.

“Over the past decade, especially in Alberta, provincial funding has gone pretty down for institutions across the board. If you look at Alberta over the past five years, there was a 30 per cent drop in provincial transfers to universities,” said McLennan.

“That is a lot of money. When you lose your other biggest source of revenue suddenly, that is going to create big challenges.”

At the same time, enrollment by international students is decreasing, post-secondary enrollment by domestic students is predicted to soar by 21 per cent between 2023 and 2033.

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In order to meet the demand and continue to attract top talent to run the institutions,McLennan claims both the institutions and provincial government need to cooperate on developing a new funding model.

“I think one of the things that will need to be done is a lot long-term financial planning. If you look at things like businesses, one of your strategies should be having diverse revenue sources and having stable diverse revenue resources — and if you look at our institutions, in a lot of ways they didn’t do that.”

“When things change and suddenly you’re relying on millions and millions of dollars coming in from international students in markets that were completely unregulated, it is a challenge,” said McLennan.

“Overall I don’t think any one single thing is to blamed for the challenges that have happened, but there was definitely a lack of that long-term revenue planning — not even just in Alberta, but completely across the country — and now we’re seeing the effects of it.”

Alberta’s Minister of Advanced Education, Myles McDougall, said the province is spending an additional $63 million on post secondary funding in this year’s budget and has no intention of getting rid of the two per cent cap on tuition increases for domestic students, but is looking at possible changes to the way post-secondary institutions are funded.

“Our funding structure, we are working on that right now. We expect to have certain changes in place by the next budget cycle, and that funding model will respond to or reflect the priorities of the government, priorities of students in terms of what they are looking for for job opportunities and career development and so much of that we expect to be in place by the next budget,” McDougall said.

But McLennan insists any new funding model needs to include a long-term plan.

“What does a 10-year plan look like? Something that will actually allow institutions to plan better, as opposed to this kind of every year (or) every two years or three years having a new shock to the system? ‘We’re gonna cut funding, we’re going to have $200 million out of your budget.’

“That’s not a plan and that’s not sustainable.”

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