UM hosts fourth-annual Budget Town Hall
President Michael Benarroch hosted the University of Manitoba’s fourth-annual Budget Town Hall on Oct. 10, providing a snapshot of the university’s financial health and the investments we are making into strategic areas.
Benarroch was joined by Dr. Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic), and Shelley Hopkins, acting-Chief Financial Officer and Comptroller. They presented an update on UM’s 2025-2026 budget, with a focus on the operating budget.
The university’s total 2025-26 budget is $1.16 billion, encompassing both operating and non-operating funds. Non-operating funds include restricted revenues such as sponsored research, endowments, and capital funding. The main focus of the presentation, available on the Budget Town Hall website, was the $835-million operating budget.
The operating budget is funded primarily from provincial grants (55%) and tuition (31%). As the presenters noted, though, provincial grants have neither kept pace with our costs, nor inflation. Manitoba’s domestic tuition rates are also some of the lowest in Canada and do not cover the full costs of academic programming. This shortfall is usually offset, to a degree, by revenue gained from international tuition fees, but recent changes in federal policies is making it harder for Canadian universities to attract international students. As a result, UM is experiencing a decline in international student enrolment and expects to see continued declines through 2029. Meanwhile, UM is seeing an increase in domestic student enrolments and although it is great news for Manitoba that our university had a record enrolment for Fall Term this year, it means we are educating more students with less money.
Despite these and other financial constraints, UM made key investments in competitive wages, capital renewal (including accessibility upgrades and learning space renovations), Reconciliation and Indigenous student excellence, student financial supports, experiential learning, internal research grants, and interdisciplinary team-building grants.
“The good news is that we are still tracking toward a balanced operating budget this year,” President Benarroch said. “The two biggest challenges facing us moving forward are the decline in international student enrolment and the significant capital deficit on our campuses.”
UM has 155 buildings and a town’s worth of infrastructure, and it receives very little funding from the province to maintain these assets. The president said UM has been developing a Major Capital Plan that identifies our needs and lays out what this university can look like in 30 years. This plan will be launched in January 2026 (details to come).
The Provost and acting-CFO presented on UM’s financial health and investments we are making into enhancing our teaching, learning and research mission, as guided by the strategic plan, MomentUM: Leading Change Together, and Time for Action: UM’s Truth and Reconciliation Framework, as well as Change Through Research: UM’s Strategic Research Plan and other institutional plans.
“We’re working to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and can succeed,” Provost Hiebert-Murphy said. “Most importantly, we recognize that everything we do depends on the people that we have so as you’re going to hear throughout this presentation, we continue to invest in competitive wages for our faculty and staff. We want to attract and retain high quality faculty and staff because they are critical to us achieving the mission and the strategic goals that we have agreed are important for the University of Manitoba.”
The full presentation will be made available on the Budget Town Hall website. Anyone with further questions or comments can submit them to Budget.consultation@umanitoba.ca.