Dalhousie Lockout Leaves International Students in Limbo
On August 20, President Dr. Kim Brooks, The Dalhousie Administration, and the Board of Governors locked out faculty, forcing the Dalhousie Faculty Association (DFA) off the job. The faculty did not want this fight. We were ready to keep teaching, researching, mentoring, and working while negotiations continued. But the University did not want to bargain, and beyond a bargaining tactic a lockout is a top-down order that shuts classrooms, freezes research, and cuts off mentorships. It punishes students as collateral damage, and at Dalhousie those consequences fall hardest on international students, the very group the university can least afford to lose.
International students are the financial backbone of Canada’s universities, and Dalhousie is no exception. Depending on their program and living arrangements, their costs are staggering. For international undergraduates, the total annual cost including tuition, fees, housing, and meals typically falls somewhere between the mid-$30,000s and the mid-$50,000s.1 On top of these costs, other cost of living expenses can add another CAD $14,000 to $26,000 annually, depending on personal circumstances. Taken together, total yearly costs can easily climb past CAD $55,000 and, for some programs and housing choices, even exceed CAD $70,000. Families abroad shoulder these immense financial commitments with the expectation of steady academic progress in return.
But when faculty are locked out, those expectations collapse. Tuition bills still arrive even when classes don’t. Study permits require continuous enrollment, so prolonged disruption risks making students non-compliant and jeopardizing their right to stay in Canada. It can also throw off graduation timelines, forcing students to spend additional months or even years in Canada. That means more tuition, more rent, and more living expenses—costs that families overseas never planned for. It’s an everyday anxiety that weighs on their sleep, their focus, and their sense of stability.
Beyond the immediate stress on students, the lockout is also damaging Dalhousie’s standing abroad. This reputational damage is just as real and impactful.
International enrolment at Dalhousie dropped from 4,481 in 2023–24 (2,821 undergrad and 1,560 grad) to 3,676 in 2024–25 (2,282 undergrad and 1,384 grad). That loss of 805 students in a single year, a 20% decline. While this is a warning siren for the university’s finances, it was also predicted, expected, and should have been planned for. We have known that this was coming, and the administration of a public service institution like Dalhousie should have had better foresight.
And yet, the Board of Governors and Dr. Brooks have chosen a path almost guaranteed to accelerate the decline by choosing to lockout and maintain the lockout of faculty. Families abroad are paying attention, and many will think twice before sending their children to a university that locks out its own faculty and leaves students in limbo. Each student who chooses Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal over Halifax is another financial loss for Dalhousie. In today’s global education market, reputation is currency, and Dalhousie is spending it fast.
Faculty are not a threat to Dalhousie’s future; they are its foundation. They are the ones who teach, mentor, and drive the research that gives Halifax its place on the map. By resisting the lockout, faculty are not only protecting their own livelihoods but also safeguarding the quality of education that every student depends on. Supporting them means supporting the very idea of the university as a place where education is a public good, not a bargaining chip.
The real threat comes not from faculty, but from the administration’s decision to escalate the conflict. The administration has chosen to gamble that it can win this standoff through force. The costs of that gamble will not fall on administrators. They will be carried by students who see their studies disrupted, by Halifax businesses that rely on those students, and by a university reputation that is already under strain. The longer the lockout continues, the more lasting the damage will be.
This is not a dispute the public can afford to ignore. Standing with faculty is not just about taking sides in a labour negotiation; it is about calling out failed leadership before it hollows out one of Canada’s great universities.
Endnotes:
1. Dalhousie Fee Calculator estimates (off campus with meal plan vs. on campus with housing & meals):
- Agriculture: ~$37K–49K
- Arts & Social Sciences: ~$43K–55K
- Computer Science & Informatics: ~$47K+
- Engineering: ~$53K+
- Management: ~$48K
- Science: ~$43K–55K
Source: Dalhousie University, Fee Calculator,https://www.dal.ca/admissions/money_matters/tuition_payments/fee_calculator.html
2. Mount Saint Vincent University. Understanding the Cost of Living in Halifax (International Students). Retrieved fromMSVU International – Cost of Living (https://www.msvu.ca/international/guidance-for-new-international-students/preparing-for-msvu-and-halifax/understanding-the-cost-of-living)
3. Dalhousie University. (2024). Enrolment by Permanent Residence, December 1, 2024. Retrieved fromDalhousie University Enrolment Reports (https://www.dal.ca/content/dam/www/study/enrolment-reports/2024-Enrolment-by-permanent-residence.pdf)