UNBC Interim President Dr. Bill Owen said public post-secondary institutions are in a critical time.
This is after the province announced an independent review of the post-secondary education system as institutions face serious financial challenges from slashed international student study permits, declining domestic enrollment, and the pandemic effects.
Dr. Owen said the school had its own internal review of its own spending and looking at efficiencies.
“We had a small financial impact in a loss in revenues.’
“I will say though that in our past budget, which is publicly available, we did have to go into reserves to ensure we had a balanced budget. We’re looking at having to do that same model this year.”
Dr. Owen added they want to be in a position where they don’t have to go into their reserves to have a balanced operational budget.
As for the outcome of the review, he said they’re planning for worst and best case scenarios.
“The timing of this review being due March 15th, does indicate that it’s timed with provincial government budgets.”
“We are having some contingency planning that we’re doing internally, and we’ll be speaking with the Board throughout January and March about the various budget models that we’ll put forward.”
Dr. Owen highlighted that the university and three regional colleges are here to support the communities and educational needs, and are all significant economic drivers.
– With files from Emily Joveski, Vista Radio provincial reporter
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