Langara College cuts 200 instructors as student visa numbers fall

Another Metro Vancouver post-secondary school is seeing big staff cuts.

The Langara Faculty Association says at the beginning of next semester, there will be 200 fewer instructors than there were in 2023. Many of those positions are temporary, who can be let go if there’s not enough work. However, others will be officially laid off.

In a statement to CityNews, Langara College says, “Earlier this year, 21 of our permanent faculty members received layoff notices.” The college says the layoffs come after a significant decline in international student enrollments, due to the reduction of student visas by the federal government.

The modern languages department is one of those that has been hit hard by the staff reductions. Teaching Chinese at Langara for 20 years, Wei Xia’s hours have been cut. She has been told she’ll only teach two classes next semester.

“We all deal with emotional impacts and financial difficulties. I know, not just me, my colleagues are taking sleeping pills to cope with the stress,” Wei said.

The modern language department saw classes drop from 90 to 61, with layoff notices delivered to six faculty.

The layoffs at Langara are part of a broader trend. Universities and colleges across the country are facing budget shortfalls after the federal government tightened the cap on student visas. International students pay higher fees than domestic ones, effectively subsidizing those local learners.

“If the government is not willing to spend enough funding to support a post-secondary education … they wanted colleges, universities, to rely on international students’ revenue, now they’re going to cut the revenue, so no one can survive,” Wei added.

Sage Smith, a Langara College journalism student who has been covering the story for the campus paper The Voice, says it’s been a struggle to really understand what the numbers are.

“I think the students here at the college aren’t quite aware of what’s going on, and they’re not aware of the severity,” Smith explained.

Many instructors tell CityNews that they are still worried for their jobs, and say they won’t know if there’s work for them until the fall.