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. 

We would like to find ways to achieve this reduction without involuntary job losses. This is part of the reason we have introduced a hiring freeze. However, we can’t rule out the possibility that faculties or units need to make difficult decisions in the next few years. If we do need to move to involuntary job losses, 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.

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.

Keeping focused on our shared vision for Waterloo’s future is crucial to making good choices now. Achieving the vision of Waterloo at 100, and managing our current situation, demands that we be guided by our values. We must continue to think differently, act with purpose and work together on solutions. We need to continue to think differently, act with purpose, and work together. We encourage leaders to have open conversation with their teams. 

Supports are available from the Employee and Family Assistance Program (for employees) and  Counselling Services (for students). 

We also need to be kind, patient and supportive of one another throughout this process. We’ll be dealing with a lot of change. It will be so important to stay closely connected to your colleagues and look out for people who are dealing with multiple stresses in their lives. 

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. 

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.