University of Saskatchewan Language Centre to shut down after 30 years

WATCH: The University of Saskatchewan is shutting down its Language Centre after three decades of helping international students learn English.

The University of Saskatchewan is shutting down its Language Centre after three decades of helping international students learn English.

Since opening in 1995, the centre has welcomed students from around the world, but enrolment has dropped.

“The number of students and the tuition actually doesn’t cover the cost of the salaries of the people who were the teachers,” Jerome Cranston, the vice-provost of students and learning, told CTV News.

The centre has been operating in a deficit since 2017.

Cranston said students are opting for online resources, like Duolingo, to learn English.

• Get the latest news from Saskatoon, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Six staff members are set to lose their jobs when the facility officially closes on December 31.

Until then, staff are working with current students to connect them with alternative English-language programs.

Cranston said there is a “contingency plan working with partners across campus” for graduate students who get referred to the Language Centre.

Peter Stoicheff, president of the University of Saskatchewan, said student enrolment at the Language Centre is down to “single digits ... whereas it used to be dozens and dozens of students a year.”

“We wouldn’t even be thinking of closing it. It’s always been very important to us, but it turns out that students have all of those resources online,” Stoicheff said.

“The in-person Language Centre is really a victim of the fact that students have many, many other ways of accessing that kind of resource.”