Providence lays off staff, cuts programming due to international student drop

Providence University College and Theological Seminary will be laying off 10 percent of its workforce and slashing programming, citing falling international student permit numbers.

Kenton Anderson, president of the Otterburne-based college, said the 2026-2027 budget will be the first time the full financial impact from the federal government’s international student policies will be felt. The college has lost more than 90 percent of its international students and saw a nearly 50 percent drop in annual revenue, falling from $26 million to $13 million.

“The effect is now hitting us. Even though these (federal) announcements started to come down two years ago, it took two years for us to actually experience the full impact, which is now where we’re at,” he told The Carillon.

Staff and faculty are among the cut jobs, with other employees having their workloads and hours reduced, Anderson said. The college’s communications and media program was discontinued, and its Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) initiative was placed on hiatus as administration “tightens the belt.”

Anderson lables the measures as a retraction and attraction strategy, as it attempts to stem the financial loss. The private college previously sold its downtown Winnipeg campus building in September 2025 and cancelled the associated arts and business programs run in the facility.

“These are people that we care about who’ve been working really hard and but we just can’t afford to keep everybody that we’ve had,” Anderson said.

The college previously had 999 international students between its Otterburne campus and downtown Winnipeg site during the 2025-2026 school term, but most will be graduating in April. Anderson said its difficult to build up its enrollment when Providence was issued 110 provincial attestation letters, documents issued to prospective international students to start the visa process. The college received 130 letters in the 2025-2026 school year, but only half resulted in enrolment.

To address its financial woes, Providence hopes to create an international footprint, called Providence Global. The college will offer a hybrid version of its masters of management program in the Philippines starting in September, Anderson said. He hopes to expand to other countries soon.

“Going back to its (Providence’s) beginnings 100 years ago and look at some of the documents from back then, the interest was certainly for Manitoba but also for the world,” Anderson said.

Providence is the latest college to feel building financial pressure from the lack of international students. In January, The Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology annouced it will wind down operations and transfer selected programming to RRC Polytech, citing international student enrolment had dropped by more than 55 percent.

Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable expressed sympathy over Providence’s staffing cuts and laid blame at the federal government’s immigration policies.

The federal government capped international student permits in 2024, reducing approved permits nationally by roughly 40 percent. Officials claimed the measures would boost housing availability, access to health care and combat diploma mills.

“It’s really unfortunate that the federal government’s decisions have forced this scenario that we’re in right now,” Cable said. “When there is too high of a reliance on international students, and the federal government makes unilateral decisions about it, it’s pretty devastating.”

The falling international student numbers will have both a financial and community impact, adding a “chilling effect” to innovation in the province, she said. The federal government’s policies has reduced interest from potential international students because they don’t know if they will be welcomed in Canada and if they’ll get a postgraduate work permit, Cable noted.

Post secondary institutions are pursuing “right-sizing programs” and ensuring stable funding as international student numbers continue to drop, she said.