26% interest on overdue tuition?

Planning on paying your tuition late? Or paying it off in installments? It’ll cost you. Some Canadian universities charge a higher rate of interest on late payments than do the usual targets of cries of usury, namely credit cards.

We were surprised to discover this, because while lowering tuition has long been a central objective of student activists, and hidden ancillary fees have always been on their radar screen, the subject of interest — which only hits the most vulnerable students, those unable to pay their university costs up front — has never generated much, well, interest.

Maclean’s OnCampus selected 27 universities, of varying sizes from across the country, to get an idea of how students are being charged if they are late paying their tuition and fees. We also asked whether the student was required to pay all fees for the academic year up front in September or if they could pay at the beginning of each term. Finally, we looked at whether the university made special arrangements for student loans, which are dispersed in two installments (fall and winter).