February 19, 2026

The Government of British Columbia has released its Budget 2026, which will be a deficit budget. The postsecondary ministry’s budget shows a slight increase from $3.51B in 2025/26 to $3.58B in 2026/27. On the front of capital spending, BC has allocated $4.4B over the next three years to support projects related to student housing, research facilities, and learning spaces. However, CBC reports that BC is slowing some capital projects—including a student housing project at the University of Victoria—to curtail costs. The budget also includes a new $283M three-year investment that will be used to double skilled trades funding, support the addition of specialized streams to existing programs, and double the number of apprenticeship seats. BC is continuing its funding for addressing sexual violence in PSE.

Financial Times has released its 2026 Global FT MBA Ranking. The rankings are created using 21 factors including alumni salary, faculty research, and graduate feedback, which are compared against other participating institutions. Five Canadian business schools joined the top 100: Western University’s Ivey Business School (#74), the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management (#81), McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management (#87), Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business (#92), and the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business (#99).

Concordia University has announced two new undergraduate programs in cybersecurity beginning this fall. The two programs—a BSc pathway and a BEng pathway—are designed to cater to different interests and career goals among students. The Bachelor of Science pathway takes three to four years to complete, and is designed for those looking for an accelerated entry into the field. The Bachelor of Engineering pathway takes four to five years to complete and is designed for those interested in complex challenges in the field who wish to pursue professional engineering licensure. Both programs offer co-op work terms and access to research performed at the university’s Security Research Centre.

Universities Canada and the U15 Canada have each issued statements on the Government of Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, which aims to strengthen the nation’s sovereignty and long-term security. Universities Canada said that it welcomes Canada’s commitment to investment in defence-related research and development. The organization further emphasized the foundational role that universities can play in this effort. U15 emphasized that research universities are well-positioned to support many of the technologies that the strategy identifies.

HEC Montréal and McMaster University have each launched new research chairs. At HEC, the Chair in Audit, Society and Governance will be co-directed by Professors Zvi Singer and Anna Samsonova-Taddei. The chair co-directors will focus their research on examining audit practice and digital technologies, assessing diversity and professional accountancy firms, and studying the impacts of climate and sustainability requirements. McMaster and Purolator have partnered to launch the Purolator Chair in Sustainable Logistics and Supply Chain Management. This chair will be held by DeGroote School of Business Associate Dean of Research Elkafi Hassini, who will lead research focused on AI and data science, automation, decarbonization, and workplace safety.

The Business + Higher Education Roundtable has released a three-part report that calls for greater differentiation in Canada’s postsecondary education systems. In the first part, the authors point to global successes of differentiated systems, highlighting key principles that these systems follow. The authors then identify current problems facing Canadian postsecondary education including mission drift, inefficient use of public funds, and systemic mediocrity and the expected challenges in addressing these problems. In the final part of the report, the authors propose several policy initiatives to successfully differentiate institutions. In doing so, they highlight problems from part two that these initiatives will address, as well as the current state of these initiatives in Canadian PSE.

Western University has announced its new Bachelor of Science Honours Specialization in Public Health program, which will launch this fall. This program combines information from several fields including biomedical science, statistics, and environmental health. Students enrolled in the program will benefit from a two-term capstone project with a community partner addressing a public health issue, as well as an emphasis on equity and ethics. “Students need an understanding that stretches from cells to society, and the undergraduate program is designed to give them that comprehensive foundation,” said Western Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Interfaculty Program in Public Health Director Cheryl Currie.

Red River College Polytechnic has waived its application fee for applicants who have self-declared themselves as First Nations, Métis, or Inuit. These applicants can now apply to any RRC Polytech program for free. The initiative follows two pilot programs in 2024 and 2025 that showed demand for more accessible application pathways. “One person said they felt like they won the lottery,” said RRC Polytech Director of Student Support Services Laureen Janzen. “By making this a year-round initiative, Indigenous applicants can now also take their time to consider program fit, meet with some of our support services on campus and really understand the programs and the admission requirements.”

In a recent reflection article, McGill University shared how a team at McGill overhauled its “patchwork” admissions process. The original process drew on multiple disconnected systems and had issues that included lengthy downtime for manual maintenance and difficulty with communicating with applicants. IT Services, Enrolment Services, and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies came together with the goal of implementing a single, unified system. The team members involved with the transition shared the importance of thinking outside the box, collaborating towards the same goal, and celebrating the wins along the way. The system was adopted across all faculties by the end of 2024 and has been well received by staff and students.

Brock University and York University have each acquired new collections focused on Black history. Brock’s Archives and Special Collections recently received a donation of the Adams, Butler and Hill Family Fonds, which provide information about the early Black community in the Oakville and Bronte areas. YorkU’s libraries has unveiled the Heritage Singers Canada collection, which contains archival materials from Toronto-based ensemble the Heritage Singers. The materials will enhance the university’s access to Caribbean history with materials that document folk performance, community-building, and cultural expressions.