An abrupt decision by Laurentian University to shut down its campus in Barrie, Ont., has left more than 200 students unable to finish their degrees in the city where they began.

Laurentian will close down the Barrie programs, long held at Georgian College, in May 2017 — except for its social work students, who will be allowed to stay until they graduate in 2019.

Their special status, which Laurentian said honours the work placements they have in the community, has sparked outrage by students in other programs, who jammed a protest meeting this week with the university president to demand the same chance to finish their degrees in Barrie.

“It shouldn’t matter what program you’re in; you should be able to finish your degree where you started. Laurentian has an obligation to see us through our four years of education in Barrie,” said political science student Jeremy Ross, president of the Laurentian Students’ Union, who said some 150 students jammed into the meeting “and they were pretty angry.

“It’s a contract for both parties when you accept a university’s offer of admission, and it’s expected you’ll both fulfil that contract.”

While Laurentian is offering free residence and a meal plan to any Barrie student prepared to transfer to its main campus in Sudbury, Ont., to complete their degree, “that forces students to uproot their lives and many are single moms who can’t leave their families, or disabled students whose medical supports are in Barrie, or older students who may not want to move into residence again with 17-year-olds,” said Ross. Students have launched a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures.

Laurentian president Dominic Giroux said the board of governors unanimously decided to withdraw from Barrie over recommendations from a provincial report that future Laurentian arts students in Barrie be taught in the first two years of their program by Georgian College instructors, not the university’s own professors. The report, by former cabinet minister John Gerretsen, also advised limiting the space Laurentian could use at the community college to less than one-third what the university wanted.

The report was commissioned by Queen’s Park last year after it turned down Laurentian’s bid for a new stand-alone campus in the boom town of Barrie. Giroux said the university was leaving Barrie “over a difference in vision.”

“We believe Laurentian students paying university-level tuition should be taught by our faculty,” Giroux said. “We expected the ministry to treat Laurentian like any other university, and at the end of the day, given the restrictions on programming and space, we decided to take a pass.”

MPP Reza Moridi, minister of training, colleges and universities, said in a statement he was disappointed with Laurentian’s decision and called Gerretsen’s plan “a fair and balanced path forward for post-secondary education in Barrie and Simcoe County.”

He said the province will use the report to map out a new partnership between Georgian College and Lakehead University that “expand options available to students.”