LOW ENROLLMENT CITED AS THE REASON FOR THE PROGRAM’S SECOND SUSPENSION DURING THE 2025-2026 ACADEMIC YEAR
On Feb. 9, the department of Classics and Religious Studies faced a second suspension of their Honours BA in Greek and Roman Studies, leaving only the major and minor programs available. The program was first suspended in Oct. 2025, due to “low enrolment,” despite the program’s enrolment numbers being “steady over the last 20 years,” according to the chair of the Religious and Classics Studies department, Dominique Côté, in an interview with the Fulcrum in Nov. 2025.
The suspension was quickly lifted on Nov. 25, 2025, after the pressure from “thousands of people sign[ing] a petition to save the program,” and to maintain U of O’s commitment to the French Language Service Act according to Côté. The act “guarantees that every student has a right to complete his or her entire program in French so long as he or she chooses electives in French.”
Professor Geoffrey Greatrex, a full-time professor in the Classics and Religious Studies department, [said] that the “lifting of the suspension was a provisional move” in order to assess the number of students that would apply for Fall 2026. With “five or six English speaking students” and “only one in French,” Marc Charron, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, “was not convinced that there were enough [students] for [the program] to be worthwhile [offering],” according to Greatrex.
Francophone students are particularly harmed, as the University of Ottawa is the only post-secondary institution in Ontario to offer Greek and Roman Studies in both official languages. Greatrex stresses that Francophone students will be subjected to out-of-province fees to study Classics, despite Quebec offering “preferential tuition rate” for students who decide to continue their education in French.
Charron, according to Greatrex, “was very clear that [the suspension] is a temporary pause” in order to “revamp the program” for Fall 2027. In an interview with Marie-Eve Sylvestre, hosted by Postmedia, the U of O president shared similar sentiments, stating that “the university [has] embarked in an exercise of reforming [their] programs” in arts and humanities, in hopes to match the interest of future students and “the needs of society,”
Greatrex states that Charron’s decision is “short sighted,” considering the updated program must be approved and advertised a year before it is offered, only giving the department six months to complete the approval process.
“And the timeline, as things stand, it is impossible [sic] for a revamped program to go through all the necessary stages in time for this autumn,” Greatrex added.
The department of Classics and Religious Studies has been subject to numerous changes, as the Honours BA in Religious Studies and Master’s in Arts in Late Antiquity are also no longer available. Greatrex expressed his worry that the Honours BA in Greek and Roman Studies may suffer a similar fate, given the inaction of administration when “all the professors met together” to plan a “proposal for a revamped program, which was sent to [Charron’s] office with no reaction whatsoever for about two months.”
Starting Fall 2026, Ontario colleges and universities will be able to increase their tuition “up to 2 per cent per year for three years, then up to 2 per cent or the three-year average rate of inflation, whichever is less,” due to a revision of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) framework. Despite this increase of funds, academic institutions across the province may center their funds to encourage “labour market needs.”
This sentiment was reinforced by Premier Doug Ford, encouraging students to “invest in your future, into in-demand jobs,” rather than taking “basket weaving courses.”
U of O, according to Greatrex, has harmed its image, establishing itself “as one of [those] institutions that’s willing to take the axe to fundamental arts disciplines,” leaving the future of the Honours BA in Greek and Roman Studies and the Faculty of Arts unclear.
