Herrera Lira (right) said students are having to delay their graduations because their schools are having to cut classes or programs to help with deficit management. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Students at Vancouver Island University are tired of seeing programs and services at VIU get cut, and now they are calling on the provincial government to make a change.

After hearing story after story of how budget cuts are affecting students across the province, the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) is demanding that the provincial government take action to restore public funding to BC’s post-secondary education system.

The BCFS kicked off their campaign on Wednesday, September 17 at the VIU’s Nanaimo campus, which they say is one of the hardest hit schools due to underfunding.

The BCFS, in partnership with the VIU Students’ Union, held an event at the quad at the centre of the campus.

As part of the campaign, the BCFS is handing out postcards that students can sign to send directly to B.C. Premier David Eby and Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Jessie Sunner. The letters call on them to increase funding for post-secondary institutions.

Ruth Carr is a psychology student at VIU who stopped by the event with her fellow psychology classmates, Laci Schulenborg and Maeve Slattery, to send a postcard.

“I signed the letter today because education is the future, and cutting it is not the answer, right?” Carr said.

All three of them told CHLY that as classes in the Psychology department are being cut, this has led to longer waitlists for classes.

Students were given postcards to sign to be sent directly to B.C. Premier David Eby and Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Jessie Sunner. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Slattery said she sees, over and over again, every semester, classes having long waitlists in their program.

“There are lots of students who are trying to get required classes, either for their program, or classes that may not be required to graduate but are required to get into graduate programs that they're looking at, and they are not able to get into those classes,” Slattery said. “The only answer that we get is, ‘okay, you can go take an online class at Athabasca [University] or Thompson Rivers [University]’ and it forces us to take our money elsewhere when we would like to do the courses here in person with our faculty members and pay VIU prices.”

While Slattery hasn’t yet had to take any courses elsewhere due to waitlists, they are already looking into a single summer course they may need to take at Athabasca University or Thompson Rivers University ahead of starting grad school next September.

“I've definitely looked at the options for Athabasca and Thompson Rivers, because I've suspected I might need to do it, and I might need to next summer to take a class if I haven't caught it this year,” Slattery said. “I might need to do it in the summer just to satisfy that requirement before I enter grad school in September, but that's a wait-and-see situation right now.”

Schulenborg said taking online classes at Athabasca University and Thompson Rivers University is almost double what they would pay if they took the same classes at VIU.

“So in order to take one class, it costs us so much more out of our student loan money, out of money that we've saved from the multiple jobs that we have, like it's just absolutely unrealistic,” Schulenborg said.

Schulenbord is currently taking two courses at Athabasca University to help with her requirements to get into grad school.

In 2023, the Government of BC placed a 2 per cent yearly increase cap on domestic student fees. There was no cap placed on international student fees. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

“This is the really horrible thing too, is that VIU doesn't give you the information that is required to get into grad school, just what's required to graduate, and the two don't always line up,” Schulenborg said. “So if you're not doing your own research, there are a lot of people who are in their third and fourth year who are just finding out that they need seven different things in order to get into grad school that VIU doesn't offer, so now they're scrambling.”

Debi Herrera Lira, chairperson of the BCFS, echoed that students across the province are seeing more courses being cut, resulting in longer waitlists.

Herrera Lira said students are having to delay their graduations because their schools are having to cut classes or programs to help with deficit management.

“We're hearing from students that they can't take the courses they need to graduate on time because they're offered every other semester or sometimes every other year, so they're delaying their graduation,” Herrera Lira said. “I've even talked to another student who had to transfer to three different institutions across the province because their program kept being cut, and that is a direct result of a lack of funding from the provincial government.”

She said these cuts come from a drop in public funding for post-secondary schools' operating budgets.

Since 2000, public funding from the provincial government has dropped from 68 per cent to just 40 per cent, leaving post-secondary schools to rely more on tuition fees, specifically international student fees.

The BCFS said over the same period, tuition fees have seen an increase of 155 per cent.

In 2023, the Government of BC placed a 2 per cent yearly increase cap on domestic student fees. There was no cap placed on international student fees.

At VIU, in the 2024-2025 school year, the international student population made up 10.9 per cent of the overall student population, but made up to 36 per cent of tuition revenue for the university.

This is down from 47 per cent of VIU's revenue in 2022.

Herrera Lira said that years ago, the provincial government started to over-rely on international student tuition fees, creating an unstable funding model, while reducing public funding for post-secondary education.

“We have been advocating for years that it is unstable, and now that the federal government has decreased international student visas into the country, we're really seeing the effects of a lack of funding from the provincial government,” she said.

She said right now the BCFS are calling upon the government to reinstate funding for post-secondary school back to the original 68 per cent.

“We often hear that ‘we want more buildings built, we want more doctors, we want more nurses, we want to fill these positions in our community and these jobs,’ but we are not seeing a commitment to prioritizing the education so that we can fill those jobs in our community,” Herrera Lira said. “It does not just impact post-secondary students– this impacts all our communities across British Columbia.”

At VIU, the effects of a lack of public funding have been felt. In the last two years, VIU has cut or suspended 29 programs, including all music studies programs, the Master of Community Planning, and the Dental Assistant Certificate Program.

Chairperson for the VIUSU, Sarah Mei Lyana, spoke to the crowd about the effects program cuts are having on campus at VIU.

Sarah Mei Lyana (pictured) said due to cuts, this has led to many classes across most programs having long waitlists or not being able to take all students interested or required to take those classes. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

“We are a small campus; when programs disappear, we personally know the students and professors affected,” Lyana said. “When services are cut, we're the ones lending a listening ear to our friends in need of support.”

She said that due to cuts, this has led to many classes across most programs having long waitlists or not being able to take all students interested or required to take those classes. She said, like herself, students have had to push back their graduations as they are unable to take every class required for their degree.

“I know these stories firsthand as an international student. I should have graduated by now; however, there is a rise in tuition and fewer available courses,” Lyana said. “I've had to work extra hours at precarious jobs, and have stretched my education and years in school because I simply can't afford a full course load of fees per semester. I love this campus and community, but it has been a constant uphill battle to stay here.”

She said that while the government could ignore one or two postcards, she says they hope that thousands of students across the province will come together to send postcards, so they can't be ignored.

CHLY reached out to the Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills about the concerns brought up by the BCFS.

CHLY was sent a statement from Sunner saying she and her ministry recognize the affordability challenges post-secondary students are facing right now and that everyone in B.C. deserves access to education.

She wrote that “since 2016, the Province has increased the total amount of block grants to public post-secondary institutions by over $1 billion.”

But she adds that they know that “in recent years, the operating environment within the post-secondary sector shifted significantly due to a number of reasons largely outside of the control of the Province.” She pointed to the federal government’s reduction in the number of study permits for international students, the impact of U.S. tariffs, and declining domestic enrolment as some of the reasons for the shift.

She said that her ministry will continue to work with leadership at post-secondary institutions, students, staff and faculty during financially challenging times to ensure that they remain focused on their core priorities for students.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.