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.

As Manitoba’s only medical-doctoral university, UM welcomes the province’s ongoing support for post-secondary education and its recognition of the university’s role in addressing provincial priorities, including health care and agricultural research. 

The operating grant allocation also includes $2.3 million in continued support for critical health programs, including those that train nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical psychologists—helping to strengthen Manitoba’s health workforce. 

“We appreciate the Manitoba government’s continued investment in the University of Manitoba,” says Michael Benarroch, President and Vice-Chancellor. “This funding supports our ability to offer high-quality education, drive research innovation, and train the professionals our province needs now and in the future.” 

The Province is also investing in key capital priorities for UM, including: 

• $10 million to support the construction of a new building at Bannatyne Campus to accommodate the expansion of undergraduate medical education, helping to train more doctors in Manitoba. This is the second installment towards Manitoba’s $40 million commitment.  

• $3.9 million for the Prairie Crops and Soils Research Facility, supporting critical agricultural research. 

• $4.5 million to address deferred maintenance projects, ensuring campus infrastructure remains functional and sustainable. 

The University of Manitoba generates $7.3 billion in total static and dynamic economic activity, with every provincial dollar invested at UM yielding a $4.10 return. 

UM recognizes the fiscal challenges faced by the province and the broader uncertainties in Canada’s post-secondary sector. Sustainable and predictable investments in operations and infrastructure remain essential for UM to continue delivering exceptional learning experiences and groundbreaking research. 

UM is currently reviewing the details of the provincial budget and will move forward with finalizing its 2025-26 budget, which will be presented to the Board of Governors in May and subsequently shared with the broader community. 

“It’s our priority to continue to hold these type of events—to engage in our community, to listen to you, and to take that information back,” Benarroch said. “It’s important to understand how we are able to move forward. Budget 2024 does this by supporting the commitments in our latest strategic plan ‘MomentUM: Leading Change Together.’”

As in previous years, Benarroch was joined by Dr. Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic), and Mike Emslie, CFO and comptroller. They presented an update on UM’s $820 million operating budget, which was approved in May by the Board of Governors.

Their presentation, available in full on the Budget Town Hall website, discussed how UM’s budget model works, how the operating budget is allocated, how it is changing in the coming years, and what our major sources of revenue and expenditures are (details of which can be found in the Annual Financial Report.)

The presentation acknowledged the financial challenges UM faces in the coming years, most of which are difficult to accurately predict, but that overall UM is in a healthy financial state.

“We do have some clear and unexpected financial challenges that we’re going to be facing over the next few years,” Hiebert-Murphy said. “But we are going to continue to resource in fiscally responsible ways and do the best that we can to continue to invest in our core mission at the university and make some gains in some of the areas that we have identified as strategic priorities.”

The 2024-25 budget outlines key areas of increased investment, including: 

• Student Services: Expanding support for admissions, registration, and permanent student resources.
• Competitive Wages: Funding negotiated salary increases across faculties and units.
• Program Expansions: Increasing seats in healthcare-related programs funded by additional provincial grant revenue.
• Financial Support: Enhancing financial aid for graduate and domestic students, with new needs-based aid for international students.
• Capital Renewal: Accessibility improvements, teaching and learning space upgrades, and campus-wide renovations.
• Strategic Research: Investing in interdisciplinary research team grants.
• New Project Funding: Establishing a $3 million pool for proposals aligned with the strategic plan.

Anyone with further questions or comments can submit them to Budget.consultation@umanitoba.ca.

The most significant recommendations include revisions to the allocation of the provincial grant and how subvention – or grants from the university to academic units – is used, providing more stability and predictability to unit budgets.

Another key recommendation is to revise the policy governing the carryover of unspent funds.

The implementation of these recommendations is being overseen by two committees, and will be included as units begin their 2025/26 budget planning process.

More stability for academic unit budgets

The budget model revision committee reviewed and advised on the proposed changes to the current budget model.

“Many of these changes focused on making academic unit budgets more stable from year to year,” says Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President Academic. “Smoothing fluctuations in the allocation of the provincial grant will reduce budget variability from year to year, providing greater predictability and more closely aligning the allocation of resources to academic units with how the university receives its funding.”

The changes include:

• Providing a base operating grant to each unit. This is a move away from allocating the provincial operating grant based on performance drivers such as enrollment and research expenditures. In future, the provincial operating grant – which makes up 55% of UM’s operating revenue – will form a base portion of an academic unit’s budget and will be adjusted annually to reflect changes in grant funding and domestic tuition rates.
• Reducing the tax on revenue that funded the subvention grants to other units.
• Simplifying the allocation of central costs to academic units, while maintaining academic unit oversight of support unit costs and priorities.
• Maintaining the allocation of tuition revenue to academic units based on enrollment, incenting units to maintain their enrollment at capped levels or grow, depending on the faculty.

Revising the carryover process

The carryover committee reviewed the recommendations from the budget review and advised on changes to the existing carryover-of-surplus process.

Currently, the carryover process allows faculties and units to retain 100% of any unspent funds in a year.

Given the increase in accumulated carryover funds at the faculty and unit levels, along with changes to the budget model aimed at smoothing year-over-year financial fluctuations for faculties, the committee recognized the need to revise the carryover process.

“The new carryover process will strike a balance by allowing faculties and units to proactively save for key initiatives and maintain reasonable reserves for unforeseen circumstances, while encouraging timely use of funds in support of the university’s mission.” says Naomi Andrew, Vice-President (Administration).

The revised process will cap unallocated carryover at 10% of a unit’s annual operating budget and define and monitor specific circumstances under which a unit can plan to save for multi-year expenditures or capital projects.

Any funds in excess of the cap will be pooled and allocated to support institutional priorities by the Provost based on input from an advisory committee made up of deans, faculty members and others.

These improvements to the budget model and the carryover process will be implemented as units begin their 2025/26 budget planning process.

Find out more about the university’s budget model and the budget cycle by visiting the budgeting website.

The $820 million operating budget reflects the priorities identified in consultations with the UM community, including investments in student retention and success, enhanced learning spaces and technology, and competitive salaries and benefits for faculty and staff.

“Earlier this year we released ‘MomentUM: Leading Change Together’, our latest strategic plan that offers a bold and ambitious roadmap that is guiding us in building a more socially just and prosperous future for Manitoba. Crucially, our latest budget supports this plan and will help us attain the success we aim for,” says Michael Benarroch, UM’s President and Vice-Chancellor.  “The University of Manitoba continues to demonstrate that it provides significant return on provincial investment, driving every facet of our economy and the education, research and innovation that benefit all Manitobans.”

The UM budget supports our strategic priorities in a variety of ways, including investments of $24.2 million for:

• Empowering learners: An additional $4.6 million has been allocated to financial support for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a $540,000 specifically to support the financial needs of international students.
• Creating knowledge that matters: $1.1 million will be committed to a multi-year pilot program to enhance research competitiveness and support comprehensive interdisciplinary team research grants, and $1.2 million to address operating costs for the John Buhler Research Centre.
• Reimagining engagement: $185,000 to ensure UM’s website is accessible to all; $120,000 for project management to advance UM’s climate action plan; $11.3M for deferred maintenance, capital and infrastructure projects; and, $1.7M for investments in operational and service excellence, such as system upgrades.

In addition, a pool of funds has once again been made available for Faculties and Units to apply for in support of short-term projects to advance institutional priorities outlined in the new strategic plan. The results of the Strategic Initiatives Support Fund competition will be announced later in June.

The Manitoba government released its budget on April 2, which included a two per cent increase in operating grant to UM. UM welcomed the Province’s commitment to health care education and in the 2024/25 budget, in addition to the grant increase, received $25.8 million in increased provincial funding for both previously approved and new program expansions in healthcare related fields. The budget also reflects a 2.75% increase in domestic student tuition for most programs.

Read the 2024-2025 budget in full online, or learn more about UM’s budgeting process.

As Manitoba’s only medical-doctoral university, UM welcomes the province’s commitments to health care education and at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. The provincial government has committed $26.6 million for more medical doctor training seats. Investments are critical to ensuring the province can implement a robust and home-grown response to Manitoba’s health workforce needs.

“The University of Manitoba – its students, researchers, and alumni – has a significant impact on the economic and social prosperity of the province,” says Michael Benarroch, President and Vice-Chancellor. “Our university has a plan to address our province’s health care challenges and we look forward to working with the government to achieve this, together.”

The University of Manitoba generates $7.3 billion in total static and dynamic economic activity. Every dollar spent by the provincial government at UM generates a return of $4.10. “The University of Manitoba is the university for Manitoba. The ideas, solutions and talents developed on campus will generate positive returns for our province for years to come, adds Benarroch.

“We know if there are increased investments in research, UM can continue to attract the best and brightest to develop innovations that will make an impact on the global stage.”

UM recognizes that the provincial government is facing a number of fiscal challenges. The post-secondary sector in Canada is also facing an uncertain environment, but for UM to remain the university for Manitoba, it must continue to provide high-quality learning, research opportunities and be accessible to all Manitobans. UM will continue to work with the province and other levels of government for sustainable and predictable investments for operations and infrastructure.

UM is now reviewing budget information received from the Province of Manitoba. Following that, it will move forward with finalizing UM’s 2024-25 budget which goes to the Board of Governors for approval in May and will subsequently be shared with the broader community.

“It just meant that I’m not spending as much as I was last year. And also, doing, instead of just buying presents, doing handmade stuff this year,” said Nathan Geerligs of Winnipeg.

Economists say the vast majority of Canadians will be looking for sales — or comparing prices to get more out of their holiday budget.

“We know that in economic hard times, we’re not going to give up on stuff that makes us happy. We’re just gonna find different ways to interact with those things,” said Kivalina Grove, a professor of marketing at the University of Manitoba.

Read here

This year’s theme is all about managing your money in a changing world. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind as you make more informed financial decisions:

Budgeting for Student Life

What exactly does managing your budget as a student entail? It’s the difference between having a plan to manage your money or spending as you go. It’s also about tracking your spending, earning and saving patterns.

Everyone has their own costs to consider. From tuition fees to course materials, transportation, groceries, bills, entertainment and other living expenses, knowing where your money’s going is half the work. The other part is your source(s) of income. Whether it’s from personal savings, working as a student, student aid, or scholarships and bursaries, tracking how much money is coming in will help make sure you’re in the green. It can all come together with the Budget Planner – an interactive tool to create a personalized budget in 3 easy steps using basic information like your income and expenses.

University campuses are also advertising hotspots for credit card companies. The Credit Card Comparison Tool breaks down your credit card options to help you find one that best suits your needs. Similarly, the Account Comparison Tool has the same purpose for chequing and savings accounts. 

Renting your first house or apartment

Renting comes with its own pros and cons, so it’s important to consider them before renting for the first time. The expenses add up to more than rent itself, and may include utility fees, security deposits, moving expenses, insurance and other upfront costs of settling into your new place. If it’s viable in your situation, having roommates can alleviate many of these financial responsibilities.

Be sure to carefully go through your rental agreement to know your rights and commitments as a tenant. This will also help you protect yourself from rental scams and frauds so that you have confidence in your living arrangement.

Using student lines of credit

With a loan, you borrow a set amount of money and pay that amount back. With a line of credit, however, you can borrow money under a certain limit and only the amount that you feel you need. Be sure to thoroughly research your options before using a line of credit or other loan arrangements, and understand important details such as interest rates, insurance, and your rights within a loan agreement. Contact your financial institution for more information on student lines of credit and the application process.

See other resources, interactive tools and suggestions that Financial Literacy Month has in store this November!

He was joined by Dr. Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic), and Mike Emslie, UM’s CFO and comptroller. They presented on the current budget year and some of the decisions that this community has been making around how to allocate revenue.

Benarroch recalled hosting similar town halls as a former Dean and former provost at Toronto Metropolitan University. He praised the UM community for being engaged in the process and learning about how financial decisions are made at the university, which has led to more informed discussions on how UM can adjust its budget model.

This year’s presentation once again focused on UM’s operating budget.

About 54 per cent of UM’s operating revenue comes from a provincial government grant. Tuition revenue represents the second largest source of funding (31 per cent), with tuition fees for domestic students being regulated by the Province of Manitoba. On the expenditures side of the ledger, salaries and benefits account for 75 per cent of operating expenses.

“Government policy has a significant impact on the university’s financial resources, and salaries are a very significant component of the university’s operating expenses,” said Emslie. “As salary increases from recent collective agreements have been implemented, and activity on campus has returned, the university’s annual operating surplus has declined relative to prior years.”

The Provost reminded the audience that tuition levels at UM are well below the national average. Hiebert-Murphy noted that if UM was at the national average, it would have an additional $30 million to invest in its teaching and learning mission annually.

During the question period, a biological sciences instructor asked if the university had a plan to invest in professor-track faculty positions in the same way it has a plan for addressing its deferred maintenance. The Provost agreed this is an area that needs collegial discussion but that ultimately staffing issues are addressed at the unit-level.

“These decisions are difficult when you are given a flat grant,” Hiebert-Murphy said. “We are continuing to invest in salary increases to support our faculty and staff while also investing as we can in other academic priorities such as filling faculty positions and providing supports for student and research.”

The President also noted that he doesn’t want our community to see this conversation as deferred maintenance versus faculty investment.

“We’ve actually fallen way further behind on deferred maintenance than we have on supporting the people here at the university,” Benarroch said, stressing that separate government grants are helping address deferred maintenance, which is key to ensuring functioning teaching and learning spaces. “And so it can’t be an either-or… We’ve got an infrastructure issue here on campus and we’ve been pushing government hard to be able to fund that.”

This budget, Benarroch and Hiebert-Murphy noted, is weighing these considerations responsibly and is investing $14.5 million in one-time, strategic priorities, including:

• scholarships, bursaries and student financial aid (additional $3 million)
• research grants ($2.5 million to provide matching funds)
• classroom and lab upgrades ($4.5 million)
• accessibility enhancements ($3 million)
• HVAC upgrades to ensure UM operates optimal ventilations systems ($1.5 million).

The budget also allocated a $7.7 million pool of Strategic Initiative funds < https://news.umanitoba.ca/strategic-initiatives-fund-projects-announced/>  to faculties and units that are advancing institutional priorities.

Yet UM, like most of Canada’s top universities, is an aging university and that comes with hefty financial costs to deal with maintenance.

“We have over 100 buildings past an average age of 50. I think we all know that past 50, things start to go bad, and we are experiencing that on campus,” Hiebert-Murphy said.  

UM is responsible for its own roads and sewer, which carry large price tags. Then there is the $90 million that has to be invested over the next 10 years to upgrade UM’s power grid, which can no longer be maintained and must now be replaced. If there is a bright spot here, it is that the Province provided UM with $12.6 million to address some of these maintenance matters in the 2023/24 budget.

Going forward, Emslie noted that UM is projecting expenses to grow more quickly than revenue over the next few years—an issue raised at last year’s Town Hall—and so to better enable the university to weather this period, UM will continue its multi-year budget approach in the expectation that this makes units better able to react and responsibly manage funds over the next few years.  

“Overall, however, the university is in pretty solid financial shape,” Emslie said. Hiebert-Murphy added, “We are taking a balanced approach to managing our budget, reviewing our budget model to ensure that resources are allocated to sustainably support the University’s mission.”

Missed the town hall? Access the presentation online, watch the archive on YouTube and submit any questions to BudgetConsultation@umanitoba.ca.

As the new budget model approached its fifth year, the UM community was invited to reflect on their experiences working within the redesigned model and offer feedback on UM’s annual budgeting processes in general. 

The review set out to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the model and whether it met stated goals: aligning resource management, planning, and allocation with the University’s mission and strategic priorities, enhancing collaboration among academic and central support units, incentivizing creativity, innovation and the pursuit of revenue opportunities, promoting fiscal understanding, and maintaining openness and transparency.

External consultants, Huron, examined the responses from the community’s feedback and presented a report on the key findings and possible next steps in improving how we allocate resources within the University to a broad-based Steering Committee.

“The report validated many strengths of the model, such as high transparency in the way revenue is allocated and that the model drivers are aligned with our mission and goals,” says Greg Smith, Vice-Provost (Academic Planning and Programs) and budget model steering committee co-lead. “We also heard that the annual budget process has improved, becoming clearer and more consistent. The report also identified areas where we can improve to better support UM’s academic and research mission; these recommendations will be carefully considered by the various sub-committees.”

Some of the recommendations include: 

• Create a pool of funds to support strategic and operational priorities including capital, one-time, and ongoing funding.
• Encourage use of funding in the current year through an improved carryover / provisions policy and the development of a clear and specific capital renewal fund.
• Improve budget predictability and stability for Faculties by removing the provincial grant allocation from the budget model distribution formula and simplifying the central cost pool allocations.

Over the next two years, several sub-committees will evaluate the recommendations and work to operationalize specific changes to the budget model and budgeting processes that ensure the overall financial health and success of the University.

“I want to thank everyone who participated in the consultation process and on the Steering Committee. Implementation of the recommendations from the review will enhance the University of Manitoba’s ability to meet our shared goals and strategic priorities,” says Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and chair of the budget model steering committee. 

More information on our budget model and the budget cycle may be found on the budgeting website.