Frequently Asked Questions

Around 80 per cent of our budget is allocated to salary and benefits, and salary costs will almost certainly continue to rise over the next several years. It is a reality that we will need to reduce the overall number of jobs at Waterloo to accommodate rising costs, and we can’t rule out the possibility that faculties or units need to make difficult decisions in the next few years. We would like to find ways to achieve this reduction without involuntary job losses, and have implemented a hiring freeze and closed open positions. However, layoffs need to happen, we will follow the requirements of our policies, memorandums of agreement and collective agreements.  

Salaries are set through collective agreements and agreements with the Staff Association and FAUW. The University will honour the obligations in current agreements and continue good faith bargaining processes for future agreements. 

Your pensions are secure. The quarterly pension risk management dashboard, prepared by Aon, the pension actuary, and reviewed by the Pension & Benefits Committee last week, shows that the pension is in a surplus position on a going concern basis as at September 30, 2024 (the market value of investments is greater than the estimated actuarial liabilities). 

The registered plan that holds the investments is a separate entity from the University and it is governed by Ontario pension legislation. Assets are invested to meet the pension obligations. Both the pension investments and the pension obligations are monitored regularly and overseen by committees with a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of plan members and retirees to ensure the financial health and stability of the pension plan.  
 

As changes happen, we will all need to work together in creative ways, and change the way that we work. Leaders and teams will have discussions about work priorities and evaluate what work is being done and why it’s being done. We need to look critically at our work and challenge ourselves to find new ways of doing things. Sometimes, this will mean stopping things we have always done or changing the way things have been done. 

We also need to work across units to manage some of the vacancies. Some units have been more affected than others with recent retirements, leaves, and absences. Sharing the load across our operational units will be key to achieving efficiencies. 

We’ve already been making progress toward working more efficiently together. We have a clear vision in Waterloo at 100 that lays the foundation for rediscovering unconventional approaches and prioritizing collaboration. The Provost’s Advisory Committee on Building a Resilient University offered constructive suggestions for long-term sustainability, emphasizing that resilience requires coherent "One Waterloo" structures. The Employee Engagement Survey also indicated a strong desire as a community to enhance collaboration and improve operational efficiencies. These efforts and initiatives will continue to help us as we navigate change and budget constraints. 

The University has implemented a hiring freeze which means that all hiring for faculty and staff positions must stop now with very limited exceptions. Externally funded positions will be exempt from the hiring freeze. There will continue to be careful review of required positions for ancillary services and positions funded through student fees.  

More information about requests for exemptions can be found in the memo shared on November 19.

In some parts of the University, involuntary separations have already happened but who and when is at the discretion of the departments and units.  

There are many teams of leaders supporting the President, Provost, and the Vice-President, Administration and Finance in this work. Nous Group is wrapping up the reporting for the functional reviews they conducted and will be providing recommendations to leadership to help inform their decision making. We are a complex organization and  rely on the knowledge, skills, and experience of unit heads to guide and implement strategic change at the local level.  

Continuing with secondments is something that host units will determine on a needs basis and cannot provide guarantees that jobs that are vacant while someone is on secondment will continue to exist. If a leader decides to remove a role while the employee is working elsewhere on secondment, the employee will be notified and our obligations under policy 18 will commence when the secondment ends.  

Keeping focused on our shared vision for Waterloo’s future is crucial to making good choices. Achieving the vision of Waterloo at 100, and managing our current situation, requires that we rely on our values, now more than ever. We must continue to think differently, act with purpose, and work together to support each other and find solutions.  

Senior administrators have been engaging with leaders across the University (such as the Staff Association, Council of Academic Leaders, Leadership Forum, and more) to equip them with information they need to manage change and support their teams.  

And the University will continue to invest in the staff conference, staff career counselling program, the Employee and Family Assistance Program (for employees), and the The Wellness Collaborative which addresses employee and student wellbeing with a range of initiatives, often tailored to local needs. We encourage you to seek these supports, and be kind, patient, and supportive of each other. 

It's clear that everyone is committed to working more efficiently and finding savings while focusing on the work and experiences that make a Waterloo education special.

We will continue to prioritize work central to our mission and maintain our quality of education while finding operational and organizational efficiencies. This does not mean that everything will stay the same as it is now – in fact, the decisions we make may mean some services and activities will stop. 

We are a world-renowned University because of the people who come here to live, learn and work. Any time we are faced with difficult financial headwinds, we know we need to rely on our people who care so deeply about this institution – and we need to care for one another too. We want to encourage units and departments to create an environment that is engaging for employees, and HR is a resource to help you achieve that. We encourage you to reach out to your HR partners for support. The University is also looking at ways to strengthen our talent development throughout the employee lifecycle and HR is also focused on building out a Strategic Talent and Performance framework. We hope to share more information on this in the coming year as the project advances. The University is continuing to provide salary increases informed by the market. 

We have worked with Staff Association to extend the period where staff who are subject to involuntary separations are afforded “internal status” for an extra six months after their departure – depending on eligibility, this could be up to two years. We have also worked with the Staff Relations Committee, who engage with individuals if their role is affected by a reduction, to evaluate skills and look for opportunities for reassignment. Supports are available from the Employee and Family Assistance Program and through staff career counselors. 

The University exists to provide an experience for our students which is driven by the engagement of our employees 

Working together on campus is an important part of the employee and student experience, and our rich and exciting life on campus is what differentiates us from other employers. There is variability in how our community is implementing our current policy, which allows employees to request a work from home arrangement up to two days a week. We’re working on improving the clarity of our current guidelines and we’ll share more information in the near future. 

Leaders continue to be briefed on the budget process and timelines, so that they can cascade the right information for your unit at the right time. If you have questions about what’s happening in your area, please talk to your unit head.  

We’ve shared information and updates and will continue to update this website as changes are implemented. In the meantime, please continue to share suggestions and questions though budget@uwaterloo.ca.

Any new roles and appointments have been carefully thought out and identified as necessary to University business. In many cases these roles will also support increased coordination and collaboration across the institution, and will help us create opportunities that will generate additional revenue. In many cases, these roles will also support increased coordination and collaboration across the institution and will help us create opportunities that will generate additional revenue. The position of Associate Provost, Campus Support and Accessibility is an example of the integrated planning that is underway, helping to reduce duplication and enhance the coordination of important campus services in wellbeing for both students and employees. 

Moreover, the government continues to add increasing external accountability requirements, despite their unwillingness to invest. This increasing requirement for external accountability is driving some of the need to have appropriate roles to oversee and lead these new accountabilities.

We have been working very hard on improving our budget planning processes, and this is where our efforts for the past year, and now ongoing, have been focused. 
 
Conversations about the budget model – the way revenues and costs are assigned to the faculties – are ongoing, and we plan to move ahead with updates to the budget model in the very near future. 

There are two factors that seem to have contributed to a small increase in tuition revenue in 2024 compared to the initial budget estimates: slightly more continuing students than budgeted and slightly higher new student intake domestically. However, lower than expected international student intake this term more than offsets this for future years. The additional domestic students do not draw government grants because we are above our corridor set by the provincial government. 

The tuition setting process ensures the following factors are considered, and that the proposed tuition fee increases are appropriate to the current financial environment: 
  

• Changes to provincial policies, in particular the provincial tuition fee framework, changes to provincial operating grant support, and any related policy changes, 

• Overall institutional operating costs including inflationary pressures and compensation agreements, 

• Waterloo’s rates compared with similar programs offered at other institutions within Ontario, and beyond, 

• The value of a Waterloo degree, both overall and in specific program areas, and 

• The demand for Waterloo programs nationally and internationally.

No additional staff voluntary retirement incentives are currently planned.

Yes. We are currently reviewing executive salaries and will evaluate options over the next three years and beyond. The hiring freeze also affects senior positions, and we will ensure that the same scrutiny is applied when these roles become vacant, especially senior administrator roles.

Coordination across all areas with senior leaders ensures a broad view across our shared University priorities and a systematic approach to dealing with employee groups. We remain committed to the work we have started with President’s Anti-racism Taskforce (PART) and Indigenous reconciliation, and our prior work on addressing systemic inequalities.  

The Academic Innovation Working Group is working with faculties on best practices for achieving efficiencies in program development and deployment.  

We have shared our challenges with revenue and expenses and it’s clear that we have some significant work to do. With six labour groups at different stages of their current agreements, negotiations are ongoing. Our current budget situation will be central to these upcoming negotiations.  

We are dealing with significant, ongoing pressure and we can’t afford to wait or delay. Three years gives us the opportunity to strategically deploy current resources to help us work towards balancing our budget.  

We’ve also implemented cost controls and budget holdbacks every year since 2019 to offset the impact of government restrictions, and our reserve funds cannot support us beyond this three-year window. This will be a highly iterative process – not three separate one-year plans – and we’ll continue to be vigilant and flexible as we develop rolling plans.  

The University fund is an important strategic reserve that we use to fund priorities and projects. But like all of our one-time funds, this money is earmarked for projects and work we need to complete to stay competitive and achieve our goals. Once they are gone and we remove our ability to meet the needs they were allotted for in the future.  

Our one-time funds are complex, and we have several that we invest in centrally and at a local level – often from years we have had underspends – to save for important projects such as investment in new technologies, capital renewal, and risk mitigation. Last year, and in this budget, we will use up some of these funds to help buffer the shortfalls recently experienced. 

We are exploring getting a credit rating from an independent credit ratings agency, which is the first step in allowing us to take on external debt. . There are very specific use cases for taking on external debt, and servicing a structural deficit is not one of them.

We’ve shared a high-level projection of what our budget looks like now to achieve balance, and given that costs are expected to rise, there will likely be further reductions needed next year and the year after. However, innovation action initiatives (such as the functional reviews and internal working group projects) will provide strategic guidance on how to minimize the impact any changes will have on employees.

Waterloo prides itself on its spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship and we’re looking all options on how to optimize and generate further revenue through the work of the Innovation Action Group and the Academic Innovation Working Group.

The University’s expenses related to functional reviews of Communications and Marketing, Finance and IT are $75,000 per function for a total of $225,000 FY 24/25. Nous Group will be providing a comprehensive report to senior leaders for these three administrative functions. The report will include an assessment of the current state and recommendations for organizational efficiency and effectiveness.  These findings will support the University in decisions related to the operating model to improve effectiveness and coordination of services and to help address the ongoing operating budget deficit at Waterloo.  

The University follows sector-wide best practices and legal obligations when it comes to assessing cost and quality of our vendors, including for sole source contracts. The University will endeavour to make information about these contracts publicly available as is permissible under legal requirements.

The financial situation we are facing is serious and requires prompt attention. The decision to engage Nous Group is based on a need for benchmarking data and expertise within the higher education sector. The Nous Group is able to provide the services within a short time frame.  

We are choosing to work with a partner who can bring deep experience in the Canadian post-secondary sector to provide data and insights to senior leaders in their decision-making.   

Simultaneously, we have been creating internal working groups on academic and administrative innovation which will bring the amazing expertise we have in our community to bear on the challenges that we face. The external consultant reports, and in particular, the UniForum benchmarking data will be essential input for the administrative innovation work.    

Nous Group is not making decisions related to the University’s finances or structures. Senior leaders have engaged Nous to engage with groups and teams across the institution to gather information and feedback from employees to get a clear picture of the current state of various functions. With UniForum from NousCubane, we are collecting benchmarking information using our own data to assess the true cost and capacity for delivering administrative functions across the University.

Employees have been engaged in the process based on their roles and to share insights for improvements to efficiency and effectiveness. This information will be shared with senior leaders to help them in the decision-making process to address the budget deficit.

The President and Vice-President group agreed to conduct reviews of the Finance, IT, and Marketing and Communications functions based on size, impact, and risks related to these areas. After consultation with other universities, leadership within the functions selected, and consideration of procurement and timing options, Nous Group was selected as the consultant to provide services related to the initial reviews.

Members of Executive Councill were consulted by the President, Provost and VP, Admin and Finance on the decision to join UniForum; Executive Council Members supported the decision to join UniForum to support senior leaders’ ability to make strategic decisions rooted in data that is informed by global peers. 

Nous Group is not making decisions related to the University’s finances or structures.

Leaders have already noted in email updates that it is going to be necessary to have fewer people working here than we’ve had in the recent past. Leaders have also already taken steps to achieve this through a restricted hiring program which was extended into a full hiring freeze in November 2024. We want to move forward with strategic decisions that are grounded in data and evidence – and Nous Group is helping us to gather and analyze that evidence.  

No. Nous Group and UniForum’s services are exclusively being engaged to look at administrative functions. 

However, the Academic Innovation Working Group (composed of internal experts) will explore how we can deliver our academic programs more efficiently. 

Nous Group is exclusively focused on administrative functions – on documenting our current state and offering workers in these function areas a chance to share their experiences and thoughts with senior leaders.  

UniForum is a collaborative program co-governed by the members of the program who come together to share their data and lessons learned for the combined benefit of the sector. Universities who are part of UniForum have repurposed up to 6 per cent of their expense from administration to teaching and research. They have also increased the effectiveness rating academic and professional staff give the services they use. UniForum has enabled its members to enhance programs, make strategic research investments, and attract leading faculty to significantly improve their world rankings.

Yes. Senior leaders are regularly in touch with other universities including at U15, Universities Canada and the Council of Ontario Universities where they share their experiences and feedback about many issues, including working with Nous Group and UniForum.  

The President, Provost, and VPAF, their advisors and senior leaders of the teams undergoing the functional review will be responsible for making decisions about budget, taking into account the information received from Nous Group. When we have data from UniForum, senior leaders across the campus – covering more than just the three areas undergoing functional reviews in early 2025 – will receive this information to action and implement changes to help us improve efficiency and satisfaction of our administrative services. 

The ultimate goal of all of this work, including these consultants, centralized budget planning and many decisions made so far, is to balance our operating budget and ensure financial sustainability for the future. 

Faculty, staff and students can share their thoughts about all decisions around the budget by emailing budget@uwaterloo.ca .

Functional reviews are underway looking at Communications and Marketing, Finance, IT across the University (and not just individual departments). Our goal with these functional reviews is to look at the work that needs to be done to support our mission and the processes, people, and resources that help us get that work done most efficiently.  

As these reviews are completed we will start similar reviews of other administrative areas. As part of these processes we are seeking to obtain appropriate benchmark data on administrative operations to compare to peer institutions.

The reviews include engagement with stakeholders from across the campus in support of each function and will conclude with a report to senior leaders.

All budget decisions will follow standard paths through governance bodies.

The University community can refer to the dedicated website for progress and updates on the budget. We have also been sharing updates through email and the Daily Bulletin to ensure that this information reaches faculty, staff, and students. We have also opened a dedicated email (budget@uwaterloo.ca) to ensure that anyone in our community can share their feedback with us at any time.  

The way that the University runs is enshrined in the University of Waterloo Act. This will not change. 

Our focus in partnering with UniForum is to obtain  data and best practices which senior leaders can use to inform strategic decision-making to ensure we are as efficient and effective in our operations and to support balancing our operating budget and reach financial sustainability.  
  
We are faced with serious financial challenges that require us to look critically and carefully at all parts of the institution to make changes that will support the delivery of our core mission now and into the future. This work is just one part of a range of initiatives designed to help us transform the way we operate.

Our initial commitment to UniForum is for a two-year period with the option to extend in the future. We will evaluate the program carefully in the first two years to determine whether an extension is warranted.

UniForum provides benchmarking information using our own data to assess the cost and capacity for delivering admin functions across the University and allows comparison with peer institutions. This requires looking at the end-to-end delivery cost of a particular function (e.g., finance, IT, research administration) broken into the transactional activities of the function and the non-transactional activities of the function, and where functions take place across the University. The survey also assesses satisfaction of users with functional areas. The UniForum methodology was developed by academics with relevant expertise and has been modified and improved over time with the participation of greater numbers of institutions.     

It enables senior leaders to better understand how Waterloo compares with our peers who are also participating in the benchmarking exercise. Universities within the UniForum collection have over time been able to improve the delivery of administrative services and to redirect spending from administrative activities into the core mission of the University — teaching and research.

Yes. The mix of universities participating in the program is diverse in terms of scale, research intensity and discipline. This allows for appropriate comparisons to be made. In its methodology, UniForum normalizes for these differences across the comparator set.

UniForum is a proprietary service provided by NousCubane. As such it does not publish details of its methodology for review, however the statistical approach has been validated by academics at a UK Russel Group in the past. Data on individual institutional identifiers is protected through the agreements with each institution so the raw data are not publicly available. UniForum was established by a former VP of Finance and Operations at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and by a former academic and research scientist. The experiences that we have heard about from other universities reassures us that their approaches follow practises and approaches that are common amongst social scientists.

UniForum has defined parameters in their benchmarking data to ensure accurate comparability across institutions of similar size and focus. The SES group is standardized across all participating institutions and consists of mid-to-senior level faculty and employees, who are selected based on their experience with people, processes, and systems across multiple services during their day-to-day responsibilities.   

Selection for the Activity Collection is based on UniForum’s defined parameters of employees who perform administrative functions (excluding faculty) to ensure an accurate mapping for comparison with other institutions. 

The results of the SES will identify the areas of strength and areas for improvement of services based on the campus community’s feedback. Larger sample sizes and high response rates reduce the margin of error of the survey results and give us more robust data to help in decision-making. A high participation rate will also allow us to gain a deeper understanding of how changes in our administrative processes impact our overarching mission year over year, providing the University with a longitudinal viewpoint. 

If you have questions about the selection process, please email uniforum@uwaterloo.ca.

Aggregated data from both the Service Effectiveness Survey and the Activity Collection are shared over multiple years among members in the UniForum program to allow universities to track trends over time. Universities who participate in the UniForum program agree to share data with each other for benchmarking purposes, and that this data will only be shared through methods and tools facilitated through Nous Data Insights. For additional information please visit Nous Data Insight’s Privacy Notice.