‘Very short-sighted’: Vancouver college cancels fall nursing program amid health-care staffing crisis

Medical stethoscope with books.

Prospective nursing students in British Columbia have had their education options narrowed despite local demand after Vancouver Community College cancelled the fall class for first-year nursing students, CTV News has learned.

The college blamed “funding limitations” for their pause on this year’s intakes, in an email statement to CTV News, insisting the plan is to resume the 2027 fall intake as usual.

In a notice to applicants obtained by CTV News, VCC said they are “one of many post-secondary institutions across Canada facing significant financial pressures due to federal government policy changes relating to international students.”

The cancellation comes amid a nursing shortage in British Columbia. In addition to the 4,500 current vacant positions waiting to be filled, the BC Nurses’ Union forecasts the province will require an additional 26,000 nurses by 2031.

“The fact that we’re losing one nursing seat, let alone a whole cohort, is extremely concerning,” said Adriane Gear, BCNU President. “This really seems very short sighted in the bigger picture when we have a health care system that is stretched beyond limits, when we need many more nurses in this province.

Over the last two years, the federal government reduced the number of international student arrivals by 72 per cent. Once international tuition dried up, colleges and universities throughout the country were left floundering for funds – particularly since foreign students pay higher tuition than domestic students.

Programs have been cut and staff laid off across the country, as a result.

“A lot of these challenges they’re facing are economic challenges from the federal government’s decision to cut international students and the lack of consultation that’s happened there,” Jessie Sunner, minister of post-secondary education, told CTV News. “It is really difficult to see in the sector.”