Mohawk College in Hamilton to start layoffs Monday as part of plans to cut 200-400 jobs

Mohawk College in Hamilton says it plans to lay off 200 to 400 workers and will start notifying affected administrative staff on Dec. 2.

The college shared the estimated number of layoffs earlier this month in an internal memo. News of the timing came in a Wednesday staff memo from college president Paul Armstrong.

It will be "several months" before the college knows exactly how many people will lose their jobs, spokesperson Bill Steinburg said in an email to CBC Hamilton, noting that administration, support staff and faculty members will all be affected.

The layoff notices expected on Monday are only for administrative staff, "who will represent a portion" of the total, he added.  

"The next several weeks will be a difficult time for everyone," Armstrong said in the Wednesday memo. "There is no easy way to share this information, and I recognize that this is a significant change for the college."

The post-secondary school warned layoffs would be coming in a memo to staff on Oct. 30. In early November, Armstrong told CBC Hamilton a drop in international student enrolment means the school faces a projected $50-million deficit in the 2025-2026 school year.

"What we were seeing is a dramatic reduction in the level of international enrolments that we can anticipate," he said at the time, adding that would result in a gap between revenue and expenses. 

The college had 7,309 international enrolments in fall 2023, but this year, it had 6,166, Steinburg said in an email earlier this month. Enrolment represents the number of sections that students are taking, not the number of students. 

As of early November, Mohawk said it had received 3,065 international applications. At the same time last year, it had received 5,691.

Mohawk said it has 1,200 full-time employees and up to 1,250 part-time employees, though that number changes each semester. There are 14,694 students enrolled in programs this semester. 

Mohawk isn't unique in reporting declining international student enrolments. For instance, Toronto's Sheridan College attributes its planned cuts and layoffs to government policy changes. 

Over the past year, the provincial and federal governments effectively limited the number of international students in Ontario colleges and universities. They were responding to critics linking immigration to the housing crisis, concerns regarding a lack of support for international students and private colleges being described as "unscrupulous private operators." 

Post-secondary schools have also criticized the Ontario government for what they describe as insufficient funding going back several years.

The federal government has said its actions defend the international student visa program, and the province has said recent investments will help the sector.