The Office of the Auditor General has completed its independent audit report on Memorial University’s consolidated financial statements for 2025-26 and issued a clean (unqualified) audit opinion.  

The Board of Regents approved the statements at a special meeting on July 21 and are available online, along with a companion document, 2025-26 Memorial University Financial Statement Highlights. The materials were posted earlier today, Aug. 13, immediately following the completion of the year-end audit process.  

Memorial’s consolidated financial statements include five separate funds. The operating fund, which supports the university’s day-to-day academic and administrative activities, is the primary focus of Memorial’s annual budgeting process. 

For 2025-26, Memorial operated within a Board-approved operating budget of $468.6 million, excluding the Faculty of Medicine. As a result of significant effort across the institution, Memorial ended 2025–26 with a modest operating fund surplus of $2.7 million. 

It ensures the university remains in compliance with the Memorial University Act, which requires the university to operate within a balanced budget. It is a governance requisite and reflects the university’s commitment to long-term financial sustainability. 

Progress towards the 2025-26 expenditure reduction target

In May 2025, the Board of Regents approved a 2025-26 operating budget that included a required base expenditure reduction of $20.85 million to maintain a balanced budget by aligning projected spending with projected revenue. 

By the end of the fiscal year, Memorial implemented $18.6 million in operating cost reductions, including $7.3 million in non-salary operating reductions, $7.5 million in staff-related savings and $3.8 million in faculty-related savings. The reductions were achieved through a combination of operational efficiencies, organizational restructuring, vacancy eliminations, attrition and targeted workforce reductions.  

Examples are included below. 

• The closure of the Office of Public Engagement in St. John’s and the Harris Centre.
• Savings associated with the closure of the Office of the Chief Risk Officer in 2024.
• The elimination of funding for the Teaching and Learning Framework and Public Engagement Framework.
• Workforce adjustments achieved through attrition, retirement and the identification of redundancies across all employee groups. These measures include changes affecting leadership and management, staff and faculty positions. In total, 20 staff positions were made redundant, five staff positions were eliminated through attrition (meaning the positions were not refilled following employee departures),and 55 vacant staff positions were deleted. Thirty-nine vacant faculty positions were deleted and nine faculty positions were eliminated through attrition. Additional changes in the employee complement also occurred during this time through contracts ending, some of which can be attributed to budget reductions and others to natural project cycles.
• Reductions in operating expenditures, including travel, printing, supplies, startup funding and other discretionary spending. 

The reductions reflect difficult decisions and significant effort across the university. We recognize the impact of these decisions and thank faculty and staff for their commitment and professionalism as Memorial continues its work toward long-term sustainability.  

While Memorial did not achieve the full $20.85 million in permanent base cost reductions, it found additional one-time savings resulting in a modest $2.7 million operating fund surplus. 

While this positive year-end result met Memorial’s balanced-budget requirement, it does not eliminate the growing gap between ongoing revenues and costs. Financial stability will continue to demand difficult decisions across successive budget cycles to align ongoing spending with available revenues and evolving institutional needs. We remain committed to doing so while remaining true to Memorial’s priorities: academic quality, research intensity and the student experience.   

This is why Memorial Evolve takes a co-ordinated, university-wide approach to navigating and managing change. The work is foundational to the university’s future strategic planning process and ensures that Memorial has the financial and organizational capacity needed to pursue future goals and priorities.  

Looking ahead: 2026-27 measures 

While the 2025-26 operating result is positive, Memorial continues to face ongoing financial pressures, including enrolment challenges, inflationary costs and the need to align ongoing expenditures with available revenues.  

For the current 2026-27 fiscal year, work is continuing to ensure Memorial’s operating budget remains balanced. This includes the previously communicated reductions of four per cent in academic units and six per cent in administrative units, as well as targeted investments to strengthen academic quality, support research and enhance the student experience. Being more strategic about enrolment is critical to Memorial’s future. Fundamentally, enrolment drives the size and scale of the university, making student recruitment, retention and timely graduation key components of long-term sustainability.  

Voluntary Retirement Program

Memorial accepted Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP) applications from interested, eligible employees from June 1 to July 10.

In total, 47 employees (representing a mix of administrative and academic employees) were approved for the program. This represents a 45 per cent uptake among those who were eligible and a contribution of approximately $6 million towards the required budget reduction. Planning has occurred within units to accommodate changes resulting from the retirement of faculty members who were scheduled to teach this fall.  

All employees approved under the program will retire on or before Aug. 31, 2026. We are incredibly grateful to these colleagues for their years of service and significant contributions to Memorial. Their work helped shape our institution and strengthen our learning community.  

The VRP program will reduce Memorial’s ongoing operating costs and contribute meaningfully to the required expense reductions in 2026-27. As implementation continues, we will provide further updates on how it and other measures contribute to maintaining a balanced operating budget in 2026-27. Broadly, we remain committed to positioning the university for long-term financial health through Memorial Evolve.