Senior administration at UW shared that since early 2025, less than 60 employees have been laid off as part of the university’s multi-year plan to return to a balanced budget. 

This figure was shared by Jacinda Reitsma, vice president of administration and finance, during a virtual budget information session attended by about 1,300 people, president Vivek Goel, and interim vice president, academic and provost Tom Duever. 

“Salaries and benefits continues to be our largest expense,” Reitsma noted.

Voluntary retirement programs in 2024 and 2025 were accepted by 122 employees. Most staff reductions – 165 staff and 49 faculty positions – were done through voluntary programs, natural attrition and retirement, and a hiring freeze. 

“As a commitment to the university, we do want to minimize layoffs,” Reitsma said. “We’ve continued to put a lot of efforts into that goal and to redeploy effective employees where possible.” 

Reitsma also noted later in the meeting that the university has worked closely with the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) to reassign people where possible and extend internal roles.

“I think we really need to think carefully when we’re filling an open position, and that’s part of the purpose of the hiring freeze as well,” Reitsma said. “Where there are positions that we can change process, or where we can automate in order to take pressure off salary budget, we need to be able to do that.”

Duever added that the same holds true on the faculty side, with the intent in the short term being not to replace retiring employees.

“Concerns have been raised about retirements, of course, not occurring evenly throughout programs and faculties. And so we will have to be strategic about some possible replacements to make sure that our programs are well supported. But in the short term, you’ll see a smaller faculty complement.” 

UW, along with many universities across Ontario, has been operating on a multimillion dollar deficit due to various factors such as reduced provincial funding and a prolonged tuition freeze. Their plan is to return to a balanced budget by 2027/2028.