1/ Some data for y'all: I've just gone through every uni's financial statements for 18-19 (CAUBO's FIUC is delayed because of COVID, so I gotta do this by hand - institutional data is 90-95% comparable to what FIUC shows). Here's what I found (all figures adjusted for inflation)
2/ Guess what? Universities cleaned up on student fee income again. This is nearly all international student income. Total fee revenue is now at $11.4B, compared to $16.3B from government. Overall, revenue was up 3.6% after inflation. But spending increases were more moderate 
3/ When revenue increases faster than expenditures, that means margins are going up and bottom lines are healthier. But it's not quite equal across the country. Net margin here = (revenues net of donations minus expenditures)/revenues. Obligatory note: net margins =/= "profit"
4/ There are about a dozen institutions who seem to be facing persistent deficits (the most important being McGill, Concordia and Calgary) But there are a bunch of unis with *exceedingly* healthy balance sheets. Here's the top 10, in percentage terms.
5/ Of course the picture looks completely different if you look at margins in absolute terms. Eight out of the top ten are in Ontario. And it's damn near entirely because of international students.
6/ Put it this way: even if COVID causes a *on average* 5% hit to revenue, it won't be pretty but *on average* institutions are going to be OK. But COVID is likely to affect institutions very differently, and they have very different abilities to absorb these hits.
(Methodological notes: MUN not included b/c 2018-19 financials unavailable; AB & BC reporting practices on donations are weird, similarly a couple of ON unis have irritating practices re: mixing govt & private grants for research. Have adjusted best I can but probablyy a bit off)
8/ Community Colleges next. Thrillingly tedious, but someone has to do it.
