Administration consolidates two key satellite campuses as financial woes continue
Ren Zhang (they/they) // Contributor & Illustrator
In a sweeping move, Capilano University announced that its ḵálax̱-ay Sunshine Coast campus will be closing and that CapU Lonsdale will be transferring all programming to the main campus. Effective April 24, 2026, these two decisions are the result of the university’s ongoing financial struggles.
The closure of the ḵálax̱-ay campus marks the end of a long standing presence on the Sunshine Coast since Capilano College’s first classes there in 1975. The recently acquired Squamish campus––formerly the main campus for the now defunct Quest University––will remain open. While CapU Lonsdale will no longer be hosting classes in the future, university administration have told the Courier that it will remain open for events and as a short-term workspace. It was also mentioned by CapU’s interim president during the January 13 Senate meeting that the administration is waiting for the university’s new president, Jason Dewling, to come on board in March to make the final decision on whether to keep or officially axe CapU Lonsdale.
Capilano University was initially founded, in part, to serve as a regional post-secondary institution that would provide much needed services to the northwest parts of Vancouver that had been lacking in access. This directive guided the college to expand to Sechelt, which in 2008 was marked by law under the provincial University Act as becoming part of their regional mandate, fulfilling their designation as a special purpose teaching university. In other words, CapU was required by legal mandate to have classes on the Sunshine Coast, as well as throughout the sea-to-sky corridor.
“CapU remains deeply committed to the Sunshine Coast and to the learners, partners and communities who have engaged with our ḵálax̱-ay campus for many years,” a statement by Laureen Styles, the University’s interim president and vice-chancellor, reads. University administration have elaborated to the Courier that this process will consist of consultation sessions and that “a comprehensive update on programming for 2026–27” will be presented at the Senate and Board of Governors meetings in February 2026.
The university cites low participation and rising operational costs as reasons for the ḵálax̱-ay campus closure, and is framing Lonsdale’s soft-closure as a move towards “a more integrated campus environment” in their letter sent out to students on December 19, 2025.
While these closures may come as a shock to some, this result follows a traceable line as CapU implements their deficit mitigation plan to address the almost $25 million deficit for 2026/27 year, as forecasted at the beginning of Fall 2025.
In 2024, a substantial cap on international student visas meant that universities relying on international student tuition to compensate for insufficient government funding were forced to reckon with the unsustainable nature of this increasingly exploitative system. Despite assurances made by former President Paul Dangerfield in 2023 stating that CapU does not rely on international student tuition, an analysis of the University’s financial reports tells a different story, showing that income from the increasing enrolment of international students––at the same time when enrolment from domestic students was decreasing–– made up for projected deficits in the University’s budget.
With this veneer of a safety net and a marketed chance at permanent residency, international students were and continue to receive the short end of the stick, paying much more than their domestic counterparts and navigating a whole host of issues, receiving little support from the university, facing growing anti-immigration sentiment, and experiencing worse employment outcomes.
This problem, however, is not exclusive to CapU; post-secondary institutions (PSIs) across B.C. have resorted to increasing international student tuition to cover costs in response to chronic underfunding by the government. As a result, 19 of the 25 institutions in B.C. are “forecasting at least one annual deficit and nine are in an accumulated operating deficit position,” according to the BC Government’s news release from November 25, 2025. Together, poor long-term planning from PSIs and reactive policy decisions have boiled over into a crisis that means CapU is having to downsize, and at a high cost to the communities it serves.
With CapU entering an unprecedented era of financial woes, these campus closures symbolize a major turn in direction for the university. While only recently administrators were bent on expansion and growth, CapU now finds itself frantically consolidating in the name of self-preservation. But, after all the budget meetings and consultations have finished, those left feeling the impact of these decisions will inevitably be students, workers and the greater CapU community.