CBU’s plans for $2.2M in financial aid.
CBU using $2.2 million grant for remote learning, COVID related expenditures
SYDNEY— Cape Breton University (CBU) is going to suffer a "significant" revenue loss this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expected to land between $15 to $20 million when the final analysis is done, Gordon MacInnis, CBU's vice-president of finance and operations, said the bulk of this is due to lower international enrollment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like Nova Scotia's nine other universities, CBU is receiving money as part of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education's $25 million financial relief package. Meant to help Nova Scotia's universities deal with the financial impacts that COVID19 has had, a spokesperson for the department said in an email the amounts of each funding grant awarded was determined based on what the university's COVID-19 expenditures were.
For CBU, MacInnis said some of the expenditures they've incurred include the cost of moving classes online, a bursary program helping students during stay at home orders and a subsidy for their food service provider.
"With fewer students around our food service provider, you know, they have taken quite a hit. It's put us in a situation where we need to be subsidizing them the food service on campus because you need to have food regardless of if you have 500 students in residence or 6,000 students on campus or none," he said.
Of the $25 million, CBU is receiving almost $2.2 million which will be used to help offset costs associated with the "transition to online or remote learning" and other COVID-19 related expenditures.
"We're very pleased to be getting some level of financial support from the province," MacInnis said.
"It's a very difficult time for the government these days with a lot of competing priorities as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic which is dominating things for most everybody these days throughout the country. So for the province to muster the ability to put together a package of $25 million for the sector, we're certainly very grateful for that and I know everybody in the sector is."
TROUBLES AHEAD
As grateful as the university is for the financial assistance, MacInnis said it doesn't address CBU's biggest challenge - the lost revenues due to the reduction in international students for the 2020-2021 year.
"The big issue for us as we turn to next year and the following year is the residual impact of COVID-19," he said.
This residual impact will be lower than expected student enrollment for the next two years of the 2020-2021 programs as this year's freshmen classes continue through.
"This will be a multi-year impact that we will have to deal with. So we're going to start talking about how we're going to deal with that," said MacInnis.
"Right now we're trying to clear up as best we can. But still a high level of uncertainty like it is for everyone in the sector right now. As well as everyone in the public and private sector."
STUDENT RESPONSE
Students' Union president Amrinder Singh said he was happy to hear the province's financial relief announcement on Jan. 12 and hopes the university will use the grant to improve "student experience."
"It is very important that CBU is accountable for how they use the money," Singh said.
"The online learning experience isn't very good for the students and with increasing tuition fees, there has been a negative impact on student experience. Maybe putting money into resources for better online classes would help improve student experience."
As reported in the Cape Breton Post, there was concern among CBU students they wouldn't be able to meet what they viewed as stricter tuition deadlines caused by the high number of accounts in default.
MacInnis said his team was able to work closely with the students' union and individual students to work out payment plans so deregistration due to default payments wasn't much higher than previous years.