Lower tuition fees and accessibility
Report exposed Manitoba's tuition freeze policy for what it really was
Winnipeg Free Press columnist Dan Lett has written an epilogue on the Manitoba government’s recent decision to lift the tuition fee freeze in that province. Lett makes the following point about lower tuition fees and accessibility:
The tuition freeze has been wildly popular with students, of course, but it has been under constant attack from the schools, which claim it starves them of needed revenue. Earlier this month, the province released a report written by Ben Levin, a former deputy education minister, that pretty much exposed the tuition freeze policy for what it really is.
Levin noted there was no connection between lower tuition fees and accessibility, the NDP government’s chief motivation for maintaining the freeze. Levin recommended modest tuition increases for university and college students, the first in a decade.
Levin’s conclusions were hardly shocking
Two years ago, Ontario and Quebec completed exhaustive studies of the relationship between tuition fees and accessibility. The conclusion was that lower tuitions make education more affordable for those who could afford to go; for those who could not afford to go, lower tuitions did nothing.
Is this not stating the obvious?
The conclusion was that lower tuitions make education more affordable for those who could afford to go; for those who could not afford to go, lower tuitions did nothing.
The biggest cost of education in Canada is not the tuition, its the other fees and books and for most housing and life costs.
In Montreal the cheapest apartment I found that was liveable and still had cockroaches was $530/month. That was in 2001. In Vancouver I was paying $650/month. On top of that you need to pay for electricity, phone, internet, laundry, food, transportation (and I didn’t have a car).
In Germany students have access to housing for about 200 Euros a month. In real terms that is about equal to 200 dollars a month, as they earn about the same per hour as we do in Canada.
The goal of any serious government (and we haven’t had a single government who has taken this issue seriously) needs to be free tuition, increased funding to universities and subsidized living costs for students.
Sound like a lot of money? It is, but it’s an investment that will make far more money for the country than the system we have right now.
Please join the facebook group: “Revitalize Canada – Eliminate Student Debt” and let’s send out a clear signal that a healthy, educated society in much better than an indebted one. We have the power to change the world, all we need is the freedom.
“The goal of any serious government (and we haven’t had a single government who has taken this issue seriously) needs to be free tuition, increased funding to universities and subsidized living costs for students.
Sound like a lot of money? It is, but it’s an investment that will make far more money for the country than the system we have right now.”
The biggest problem I have with this statement is that the emphasis is on “universities” as opposed to “higher education”. I genuinely don’t believe that we need more university students. The market for many university degrees is already grossly over-saturated, and the taxpayer is already getting a poor return on those investments because there aren’t enough jobs that actually require what those degrees offer. I feel it would be far more beneficial for governments to use targetted reductions of fees in colleges, trade schools, and certain professional programs to encourage students to fill the more pressing deficiencies in the market that we actually have, rather than blanket funding to all degree programs at far greater expense and little return on our investment.
The principle argument that I foresee against this, namely that going to university to “become an educated person”, is I believe, wholly anachronous. Given the availability of high quality, free resources on the internet, I would argue that this level of education can be achieved by anyone with the interest in doing so, at virtually no cost. Indeed, it would probably be an infinitely more profitable investment for government to invest the same funding in enhancing the degree of scholarly digital works available to the general public and community-based education programs, and encouraging personal growth by taking advantage of those resources.
If anyone wanted to expose the Manitoba tution freeze policy for what it is, here is all they have to say:
“fake tuition freeze with so many loopholes it can’t possibly protect students. Attempt to trick students into voting NDP while their tuition still goes up due to ancillary fee increases.”
Christian,
I 100% agree with you but people on this website will never wrap their minds around the socialist education system in Europe.
Trust me.
Sorry to disappoint, but there is no such thing as “the socialist education system in Europe”.
Barlow, you sound like someone who has never spent time in a university classroom. Yes, the internet has a wealth of material, but until you’ve participated in a discussion with your peers (moderated by a brilliant professor) you might want to think twice about calling the two methods of learning equal. As far as I know the internet doesn’t grade your essay or provide insightful comments on your work. Opinions can of course be found in abundance, but that old adage about a**holes typically rings true.
That said, I agree with you that the emphasis needs to be on higher education as a whole, rather than the university system.
Josh, not that it matters or you care, but at the moment, I’m working on my Ph.D, and have experience on both sides of the lectern. I have no problem with having discussions with peers that share mutual interests; I just don’t think that a lecture hall in a university offers any better forum for discussion than a local coffee shop. Honestly though, I don’t believe that classrooms provide a good setting for students to learn much of anything. Many students seem to forget 80% of what they “learned” in class within a day after finishing the exam, and lose most of the rest by the start of the next term. If someone is expected to know all the material upon coming out of a class, then only getting a longterm retention of 5% is pretty pitiful. On a fundamental level, I don’t think the current system really works for the vast majority of people.