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At the May 28 Academic Council meeting, the university presented a cautious 2019-2020 budget plan for Ontario Tech as approved by the Board of Governors. The budget provides resources for the university’s strategic priorities (sticky campus, tech-focused university, entre/intrapreneurship, partnerships and storytelling) while being mindful of constraints on university funding. We stayed true to our values in spite of having $3.4 million (or 1.8 per cent) less to spend this year, compared to 2018-2019.

After planning for an expected three per cent increase in domestic tuition for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the university had to adjust when a provincially mandated 10 per cent reduction in domestic tuition in 2019-2020 and a tuition freeze in 2020-2021 was released. Compared to our original long-term plan, we had to alter strategies to make up a $12 million shortfall by 2021. In response, the university worked with all unit leads to undertake a two-year budget process that recognizes these significant financial pressures while staying focused on strategic priorities.

The 2019-2020 budget of $191-million reinforces the university’s principle that ‘strategy drives budget, not the other way around.’ To mitigate some of the impact of our expected revenue shortfall, the budget includes an increased target enrolment of just over 9,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students for the coming year, up 150 FTEs from 2018-2019. About one-third of this growth will come from increasing international enrolment consistent with our strategic enrolment plan to grow from the current 6.2 per cent of students to 10 per cent. With no change in our operating grant for 2019-2020, new tuition revenues are critical to fund investments in strategic areas.

To balance the budget, total spending will decrease 1.8 per cent. All budget managers were asked to identify and prioritize things we should do differently, reduce, or stop doing in order to serve our strategic goals. This led to many cost-saving ideas such as $500,000 in utilities, $1 million through delayed hiring, and $600,000 through reduced capital projects.

As President Murphy noted in his , we must increase our focus on strategy during a period of constrained enrolment and reduced government funding to ensure we are poised to respond to opportunities as they emerge. To this end, through a reallocation of internal resources, the university has:

• Invested $3.6 million more in full-time labour (relative to 2018-2019) to strengthen our commitment to our faculty and staff.
• Invested an additional $5.2 million in other projects and priorities such as:
  • Research and innovation through the creation of the Brilliant Catalyst office.
  • Setting the foundation for the new brand.
  • Construction on a new building.
  • The addition of more than 130 study spaces and 70 computers through Campus Library renovations.

While the university has identified and implemented measures that have addressed the tuition shortfall in 2019-2020, we continue to strive on finding efficiencies. If you have additional ideas on how to create these efficiencies or better ways to operate to improve outcomes for students, please send them to budget@uoit.ca.