{"id":510986,"date":"2026-03-03T05:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510986\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:56:17","slug":"algonquin-college-board-votes-to-slash-30-programs-during-virtual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510986\/","title":{"rendered":"Algonquin College board votes to slash 30 programs during virtual meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Algonquin College’s board of governors voted unanimously to cancel 30 programs during a virtual meeting Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The cuts include Algonquin’s paralegal and law clerk program, its journalism program, several horticulture programs, a music industry arts\u00a0program and many more.<\/p>\n

The board met Monday afternoon in an unusual online-only format that required attendees to\u00a0register for free tickets on Eventbrite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was no discussion about saving individual programs. Algonquin College president and CEO Claude Brul\u00e9 said the decision to cancel these 30 programs are not a reflection of the work done by faculty and students.<\/p>\n

Several program co-ordinators told CBC News they don’t understand how their programs met the criteria for suspension.<\/p>\n

Cuts proposed in January<\/p>\n

Algonquin’s plan to suspend the programs amid increasing financial pressure was first unveiled in January, then paused when the province announced it was lifting a tuition freeze for Ontario’s post-secondary institutions. <\/p>\n

But on Feb. 26, Brul\u00e9 announced the cuts were back on the table, writing in a message to staff that “financial mitigation efforts must continue to ensure the college\u2019s long-term sustainability.” <\/p>\n

Senior vice-president academic Julie Beauchamp said lifting the freeze on tuition does not change the college’s immediate reality. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“A two per cent annual tuition increase does not close the structural gap created by years of frozen tuition fees and unmatched funding,” said Beauchamp. “In several cases, our internal costing shows tuition would need to increase dramatically to approach viability.”<\/p>\n

The following programs will now be suspended:<\/p>\n

Sustainable architectural design.Horticultural industries.Apprenticeships in horticulture techniques.Manufacturing engineering technician.Pathways to Indigenous empowerment and aboriginal general arts and science. The college points to its new Indigenous studies program instead.Applied museum studies.Design foundations.Journalism.Music, media and film foundations.General arts and science, except English for academic purposes.Music industry arts.Illustration and concept art.Bachelor of culinary arts and food science, specifically honours.Bartending.Business development and sales.Its hospitality program in hotel and restaurant operations management.Tourism, specifically travel.Law clerk.Event management.Financial services.Paralegal.Pre-health pathway to certificates and diplomas.Pre-health pathway to advanced diplomas and degrees, specifically at its Ottawa campus.Recreation and leisure services.Fitness and health promotion, though it will continue online.Business in Pembroke.Business fundamentals in Pembroke.Computer programming in Pembroke.Environmental management and assessment in Pembroke.<\/p>\n

Students currently enrolled in these programs will be able to finish, but no new students will be admitted.<\/p>\n

The latest cuts follow significant cuts made last year, including\u00a0the pending closure<\/a>\u00a0of the college’s campus in Perth, Ont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-510986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}