Dear Brock community,
With the budget development process for 2026-27 well underway across the teaching Faculties and shared-service units, I wanted to reflect on some of the questions that were raised earlier this year at the Community Information Session in the spring—and provide some clarity on the University’s financial position for next year.
In case you missed it, a recording of the 2025 Community Information Session is available online here.
One of the items we discussed at the session was moving towards a multi-year budget planning model for the University. We launched this new process, titled “Institutional Academic and Shared-Service Budget Planning” shortly after the information session.
The Provost’s Office received several questions, comments, and feedback following the Community Information Session and as a part of the new budget planning process this year. These have been grouped into four major categories below.
(1) Impact of the Budget Deficit
As outlined in the Community Information Session, Brock—like many other institutions in the sector—continues to face a significant operating deficit. This is not surprising, as the Provincial operating grant continues to be flat, and tuition remains frozen at 2019 levels.
The short version is that our current projected budget shortfall for 2026-27 is $22.3M.
This number factors in several initiatives and actions already taken to alleviate budgetary pressures, including moderate and sustainable growth in enrolment, a frozen capital budget, limited and declining strategic funds—and $5.3M in mitigation targets for 2026-27 distributed across the academic and non-academic units.
The path to a balanced budget for 2026-27 will not be easy. Over the coming months we will have to grapple with some difficult questions and decisions that go to the core of who we are as an academic institution and what our priorities are for the future.
What this means is that as we look ahead, it will be ever more important for all members of our community to acknowledge that the University’s capacity for significant financial commitments remains limited. The ongoing structural deficit will require a careful and measured approach to all resource allocation questions in the coming years.
(2) Sustainability Reviews
We received several questions about the Efficiency and Accountability Fund (EAF). These reviews were mandated and funded by the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security (MCURES) and involved having a third-party consultant—in Brock’s case, the consultant was KPMG—conduct reviews of several aspects of the University’s operations. The reviews focused on five areas:
- Governance, Administrative & Student Services
- Academic Programming
- Physical Assets and Facilities
- Collaborative Procurement Opportunities
- Revenue Generating Opportunities
The review resulted in 72 recommendations that have informed the development of Brock’s EAF Implementation Plan. Details, including how the EAF implementation plan is being managed, can be found on the Sustainability Reviews webpage here.
(3) Academic Revitalization
Following the Community Information Session, we received many thoughtful suggestions on how our programs could be more relevant to student needs and interests. The question, at its core, was well put in one comment: How do we reinvent ourselves?
There are a few initiatives already underway in this regard. The first is the Curriculum Delivery Initiative (CDI) which is working directly with Departments to provide data, review program pathways, and make recommendations that will help further the priority areas outlined in our academic plan. Several Departments have already engaged with the CDI, and it is a resource that remains available to any academic unit interested in looking at their curricula and thinking about program changes.
The second initiative is the University Action Plan (UAP) that has mapped out a series of primary and support actions we are planning to take to advance the goals and priorities laid out in the 2025-30 Strategic Plan, Transforming people, reimagining the future. The UAP will allow us to gauge our progress over the next 5 years.
Lastly, as you may have seen, the Provost’s Office launched a Brightspace shell this summer on Reimagining Brock University. This shell serves as an open forum for asking questions of the Brock community around reimagining our future. The current discussion topics are:
- Degree Architecture, including Core & Context
These are topics we will explore further and in more detail this year. The Brightspace shell is open to all members of our community, and I welcome your thoughts on these discussion topics by email at [email protected].
(4) Strategic Mandate Agreements and the Provincial Funding Model
We received a few follow-up questions and comments about the Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA), the mechanisms by which institutions receive their funding, and how the performance-based metrics work in practice.
The next iteration of this agreement with the Province (i.e., SMA4) has not been finalized with the Province yet. Once finalized, the details will be made available on the Institutional Planning, Analysis, and Performance (IPAP) website.
In thinking about our next agreement with the Province, it is important to note that it is designed to achieve three objectives as set out by the Ministry:
- Improve education and economic outcomes of students
- Improve outcomes for communities
- Support sector stability and accountability
For SMA4 (2025-30), the performance-based metrics are meant to measure our efforts in achieving these three objectives. With this in mind, and as our funding is assessed on a metric-by-metric basis, it is important that we identify and weigh them in a way that both reflects the Ministry’s objectives and is achievable for the institution.
In the Spring, we’ll hold another community information session to discuss the 2026-27 budget in more detail and our ongoing financial sustainability strategy.
More details about this session will be shared in the coming months.
Thank you, everyone, for your time, care, and attention. By working together, I am confident in our community’s ability to build a sustainable future for Brock.
Sincerely,
Arja Vainio-Mattila
Provost and Vice-President, Academic