Town Hall participants hear how UM is balancing its budget while investing in priorities.
UM hosted its fifth annual Budget Town Hall on Oct. 15, providing an overview of the university’s financial position, operating budget, and plans to meet future challenges and opportunities.
President and Vice-Chancellor Michael Benarroch once again hosted the event and was joined by Dr. Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic), and Lucile Griffiths, Associate Vice-President (Finance).
They gave a detailed overview of UM’s $858.5-million operating budget, which was approved by the Board of Governors in April 2026. Their presentation is available on the Budget Town Hall website.
“Our financial stability allows us time to be strategic, and discussions are taking place so that, over a multi-year period, we can continue to balance our budget while investing in some of our academic priorities and ensuring we meet the research and reconciliation missions of our university,” Benarroch told the in-person and virtual audience. “At the end of the day, we do face a financial shortfall—we’re in constant discussions with government about some of this and different approaches to handle that.”
The vast majority of the operating budget—about 75 per cent—goes toward compensation, ensuring UM continues to support its teaching and research excellence. The remaining funds are non-compensation related costs such as supplies, materials, repairs and maintenance, and IT-related costs.
UM faces rising costs for everything from materials and software to wages, yet its ability to generate new revenue to offset these costs is limited. The university is primarily funded by a provincial block grant that has not kept pace with inflation. The grant does not increase with enrolment, which has increased, meaning the university is educating more students with less money. And the university cannot grow its way out of this situation, as undergraduate tuition fees do not cover the full cost of educating a student and are regulated by the government.
The current budget had an $11-million gap between costs and revenues. The provost explained some of the ways the budget model allows the university to accommodate these shortcomings and balance the budget, as it is legislated to do.
“In the next few years, we’re likely to be in a similar situation as we were this year, which is that we are going to see our costs increase more than our revenue. So, we’re going to have to continue to work to close that gap by using a number of strategies,” Hiebert-Murphy said.
One such strategy discussed in the presentation was strategic enrolment management, or SEM. In brief, it’s an approach that improves students’ experiences and outcomes while ensuring the university effectively uses teaching resources. It does this by tracking a student’s journey from recruitment to graduation, providing insights on where supports can be better targeted, how the university can better match students with programs of interest, meet changing demand and fill seats in classrooms.
“We’re trying to invest in strategic initiatives that can help our university grow and prosper,” Benarroch said.
UM maintains healthy financial indicators, Griffiths said. For instance, its primary reserve ratio—the number of days it could continue operating if all revenue ceased—is 195 days, above the 140-day threshold used to indicate reasonable financial reserves.
“Developing the budget is not the responsibility of one person or one office,” Griffiths said. “It relies on the commitment of faculty, staff, students, administration and committee members who review the information, ask difficult questions, answer difficult questions, provide advice and help ensure we are making well-informed decisions. Thank you all for that contribution.”
This year’s budget also includes strategic one-time investments of $24.5 million for projects supporting UM’s strategic plan.
Investments include:
Watch or listen the 2026 Budget Town Hall.
If you have any questions or feedback, reach out to budget.consultation@umanitoba.ca.
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