Grant freeze leaves some N.B. universities bracing for tough decisions
The government’s freeze on operating grants could force universities to make tough decisions.
In Tuesday’s budget, the government announced it was freezing universities’ operating grants at 2025–26 levels, citing that post-secondary enrollment peaked in 2004 and has been in steady decline since.
This means post-secondary institutions in New Brunswick won’t face budget cuts; however, they also won’t receive additional funding for the 2026–27 period.
Camila Baquerizo Bayona is vice-president education for the St. Thomas University Students’ Union.
She says the lack of additional funding will strain an already “underfunded system.”
“We are already seeing some of the loopholes happening within our student services, and we understand this is a bigger problem than our university administrations,” she said. “This is mostly a matter of understanding that education right now is clearly underfunded.”
Baquerizo Bayona said that since the beginning of the school year, the student union at STU has been advocating for the university to reinstate services cut due to budget constraints.
In September, STUSU launched a campaign to save the international student coordinator position — a role Baquerizo Bayona said was pivotal, as it assisted international students who had just arrived at the university and were learning to adapt to a new country.
At the same time, Baquerizo Bayona said the union discovered through its student reports and statistics that mental health services for STU students were being overwhelmed because the school didn’t have enough counsellors.
She said that with the international student cap, STU, like many other post-secondary institutions, has experienced substantial revenue losses the university is still trying to compensate for.
With the freeze in operating grants, Baquerizo Bayona said she is concerned that other student services — such as the experiential learning program, which connects students to the workforce through internships — might face further cuts.
“How do we expect to keep increasing our enrollment, keep producing students and helping them, if [the government] is constantly cutting funds?” she said. “Cutting the chances for people to access education.”
Acadia Broadcasting reached out to STU, which declined to comment, saying it will be a few weeks before the university has a full picture of the ramifications of the freeze on grants.
Université de Moncton changing its operating model
In a press release Tuesday, the Université de Moncton announced it was accelerating its “operational transformation process” because of the province’s grant freeze.
The university said that although the government hasn’t formally imposed budget cuts, inflation and commitments made to its community mean the freeze represents “a real revenue loss” for the institution.
The university was already exploring operational transformation, but said the announcement gave it the opportunity to accelerate the process, which will examine whether shared services can be combined across the three campuses to run more efficiently.
However, as the freeze on grants was announced in the spirit of a “more in-depth discussion,” the university said it is willing to seize the opportunity to weigh in on these conversations.
