Vancouver’s Langara College considering discontinuing journalism program

Another B.C. post-secondary institution is at risk of shuttering an entire program as educators say declining student enrollment continues to affect finances.

Vancouver’s Langara College confirms that faculty leadership is reviewing the school’s journalism program and may suspend new student intake for the fall 2026 semester.

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A spokesperson says the decision is not yet final, but “low student demand” has forced the college’s academic governance to recommend the pause.

It says the school regularly reviews all its programs and remains committed to supporting currently enrolled students through graduation.

“Our second year students, we will teach out, and they will graduate in the spring of 2027, and then that’s it,” Journalism Program Chair Barry Link told CityNews,

Link spoke about the potential for the pause in no uncertain terms.

He says, although the news feels “swift,” it’s part of a gradual process of unravelling the department since Langara discontinued the Journalism Certificate Program last year.

Link says faculty and staff have known about the potential change for a while.

“Our enrollment has been going down over a period of years,” he explained.

“We are not alone in that — every journalism school and program in the country is undergoing this, and others have already closed. We’ve been working on ways to try and forestall that… So it’s not a surprise, but it doesn’t make it any easier when it actually happens.”

Student Zoe Li is in her second year in the diploma program. She says she did not expect she may become one of the program’s last graduates.

“Did I just spend time on a program that society and the college don’t think is important anymore?” Li asked.

She is uncertain what this will mean for a potential career in journalism. But in the meantime, she wants more answers from the school.

“Make it more transparent for us,” she said. “How did you come to this decision? I still think the world needs journalists.”

“We need people to ask questions.”

In his 11 years at Langara, Link says, he has watched the number of students in the program drop by half.

He says enrollment has declined in tandem with job prospects in the media industry.

“There’s the economic side that some students are looking at, but also many of them, they haven’t come up with the same media ecosystem that I grew up with — newspapers and magazines and radio and broadcast TV being so ubiquitous — They have different models for information and they seek information and communicate in different ways. And I don’t think journalism has figured out how to really sustain itself in that.”

Link says discontinuing the program will result in job losses for approximately 14 instructors associated with the program.

“Going into the fall, probably there’d be about three, maybe four instructors. And then at the end of that, their employment situation will be uncertain after the last class has graduated.”

After decades upon decades, he says it would also bring the end of the college’s student paper, The Langara Voice, which covers both campus and South Vancouver issues.

He noted that Langara is not alone in facing a “bleak financial situation” since the federal government forced a cap on international student enrollment nationwide.

For his program, Link says students and recent graduates are sad.

“This is a very tight-knit cohort of students. We emphasize a very hands-on program. We emphasize teamwork because that’s what is required for the industry — and they’re feeling it. We are reassuring the second-year students that their second year will be no different than any other second year. They’re going to get top-notch education, and we’re going to graduate them. But yeah, it’s a strange feeling for them that they’re going to be the final students in the history of the 60-year program.”

—With files from Cecilia Hua.