Campus Money
Want lower tuition? Ask your profs about $97,000 pensions.
Runaway compensation is hurting students
Photo by Tania Liu on Flickr
When students across the country united for the Canadian Federation of Students’ National Day of Action to protest tuition fees on Feb. 1, tiny Brandon University’s student union did their part.
They gathered students, foisted placards and yelled into a megaphone. The message was clear.
Drop fees. Drop fees. Drop fees.
It seems strange then, that last fall when the Brandon University Faculty Association went on strike for the second time in three years, the student union wasn’t so bothered about being asked to pay more for their professors— who make up most of the university’s costs.
Continue reading Want lower tuition? Ask your profs about $97,000 pensions.
Alberta will make student loans easier
Goodbye parental contribution
Aside from promising no tuition, one of the most interesting ideas in the Alberta Liberals’ platform last week was that they would no longer consider parental income when students apply for loans.
In this week’s budget, the Progressive Conservative government beat them too it, with a plan that does away with parental contributions as of Aug. 1. Students will need to contribute a flat rate of just $1,500 to their educations before they’ll be considered eligible for student loans. They’ll no longer be rejected based on savings, part-time job earnings or high parental incomes.
Students have long argued that it’s unfair to deny them loans based on their parents’ incomes. After all, just because your parents earned a certain amount, it doesn’t mean they’ll share it with you.
Parental contributions are required in all provinces because they save governments money. Groups like the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance oppose strict parental contributions. An OUSA study showed that only 51 per cent of students receive money from their parents. How many of the 49 per cent who aren’t getting money from their parents are rejected from student loans because of it?
That’s unknown. What’s known is that many students rejected from loans are forced to work between classes while lower-income peers with loans are able to focus on school work.
The flat contribution wasn’t the only change highlighted this week in Alberta. The PCs are also promising to pay students “completion grants” of up to $2,000 upon graduation.
Economist will suggest scrapping 30 per cent tuition grants
Ontario grapples with deficit
Banking guru Don Drummond will recommend that Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario Liberals scrap the 30 per cent Ontario Tuition Grant that came into effect just last month, reports the Toronto Star. The former TD Bank chief economist will release a 700-page report on Wednesday that will help the Liberals chart a course to paying down Ontario’s $16 billion deficit. The report suggests spending will need to be limited to just $6.3 billion over the next five years or just 0.8 per cent more per year. That’s an enormous task considering that spending has risen from $83.5 billion in 2005-06 to $124 billion last year. The 30 per cent off tuition grant offers roughly 300,000 college and university students a rebate of $730 or $1,600 each. The program costs nearly $500-million per year.
Lazaridis donates $21 million to Waterloo
RIM founder’s gifts now total $123 million
The founders of Research In Motion (RIM), the Waterloo, Ont. based produce of BlackBerry products, have fallen. But one of them, Mike Lazaridis, is ready to make a new investment. He and his wife Ophelia pledged $21 million to the University of Waterloo on Wednesday. “History has shown us that a relatively small investment in fundamental research in physics and in science today can lead to huge innovation tomorrow,” Lazaridis said. The money will fund chairs in condensed matter and astrophysics, a new science building and scholarships for mathematics students. The couple have donated $123 million in total, after funding the Institute for Quantum Computing and the soon-to-open Quantum Nano Centre. To get a sense of how big those donations are, consider that only one gift to a Canadian university exceeded $20 million last year, reports Academica.
Can’t afford a hall? How about a stall?
Colleges sell naming rights to washrooms
Photo by Svadilfari on Flickr
Cash-strapped Canadian universities will want to read this story from Inside Higher Education.
A Utah college is selling the naming rights to bathroom stalls on campus to raise money for a bankrupt musical theatre company.
At $2,000 apiece, the Dixie State College stalls are a deal. Harvard’s Law School, for example, received $100,000 for the naming of a washroom.
MIT rejected an offer to buy naming rights for a washroom from venture capitalist Brad Feld a decade ago. He then paid $25,000 for a washroom at the University of Colorado instead.
University of Alberta student stole $27,000
Some money repaid
A University of Alberta student allegedly embezzled $27,745 from the Business Students’ Association. Students in the Faculty of Business received an e-mail Monday informing them that it was possible because of a “bank error in setting up the ATM card privileges,” reports the Edmonton Journal. The e-mail also says “a significant portion” of the money has been repaid.
Nova Scotia presidents’ salaries revealed
Guess who makes $256 per student
Nova Scotia flag by Makaristos on Wikimedia
In September, Nova Scotia’s universities will be required for the first time ever to publish the salaries of all employees who earned $100,000+.
It turns out that will include all 12 of the province’s university presidents, reports CBC News. Combined, the presidents were paid nearly $2.6-million in base salaries to run 11 institutions (NSAC has two presidents).
The schools serve only about 35,000 students total, roughly the same number as the University of Alberta and 20,000 fewer than York University.
Tom Traves of Dalhousie is by far the highest paid at $393,000. That’s unsurprising considering that his institution has more than double the population of the next biggest Nova Scotia university with more than 15,000 full-time students.
Thompson Rivers students want budget published
Student union says “it doesn’t make sense”
TRU photo by tuchodi on Flickr
Students at Thompson Rivers University are joining their peers at schools like the University of Prince Edward Island in demanding that their student union’s budget be published online.
It would seem like a given that students who are forced to pay substantial fees—$150 per year at TRU—would have easy access to the projected spending of their money. Indeed, they do at some schools like the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta.
But many student unions like TRU’s have bylaws that only require executives to share their budgets at annual general meetings or when students make appointments to sit down with executives to go over the numbers.
Continue reading Thompson Rivers students want budget published
UBC charged students multiple times
Roughly 530 affected
Roughly 530 students at the University of British Columbia were billed two or three times for housing, tuition or other fees in December due to a glitch in the school’s electronic funds transfer system. More than $2.1 million was mistakenly scooped from accounts, UBC officials told The Ubyssey. Payments made between Dec. 23 and 28 were processed multiple times by a third-party company called BeanStream. UBC says duplicate payments will be credited back to student’s accounts and BeanStream will reimburse students for insufficient funds charges and overdraft fees.
Funding cut and tuition to rise in Nova Scotia
Presidents and student groups complain
Nova Scotia flag by Makaristos/Wikimedia
University presidents and student groups in Nova Scotia are angry about a new three-year funding agreement that includes a three per cent funding cut and a three per cent tuition rise, which is roughly equivalent to annual inflation.
After a four per cent cut last year, plus inflation, there is now a $75-million hole in budgets system-wide, John Harker, chairman of the Council of Nova Scotia University Presidents and president of Cape Breton University told the Chronicle Herald.
The Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students called the agreement “disappointing.” In a release, chair Maxime Audet said this: “tuition fee increases coupled with reductions in government funding means students in Nova Scotia will be paying more and getting less.”
Continue reading Funding cut and tuition to rise in Nova Scotia
Ontario tuition credit coming (for some) in January
CFS and opposition want credit extended to all families
*To see a more up-to-date version of this evolving story, click here.
Despite Ontario’s woeful fiscal situation, the Liberal government says it will make good on its promise to offer 310,000 students tuition rebates—$730 per college student and $1,600 per university student. At $6,500, Ontario has the highest average university tuition in the country.
Those receiving Ontario Student Assistance Program funding will automatically get the rebates in January, which will be credited online in time for second semester payments, according to CTV News. Other students will need to apply through a website that will be available in January.
Five out of six families with students will be eligible for the rebate—but families who make more than $160,000 will be left out. The Canadian Federation of Students presented a 40,000-signature petition to the legislature asking for the $423-million annual cost of the rebate program pay for a 13 per cent reduction in tuition fees for all students instead. The opposition New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives agree that all students—not just some—should get a break on tuition.
*Editor’s Note: In a comment below, Glen Murray, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, addresses who is eligible for these particular grants. The 30 per tuition reduction applies to students who are within four years of high school graduation, registered in a first-entry undergraduate university or college programs, and from families with incomes lower than $160,000. He notes that there are other provincial programs available for other students.
NDP candidate would lavish gifts on students
But Paul Dewar doesn’t have much support
Photo from PaulDewar.ca
No less than nine people are fighting for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
Now, one candidate has distinguished himself by promising gifts for students—in the form of cash.
Paul Dewar, member for Ottawa Centre, released a plan last week that would provide 10,000 youth with tuition grants in exchange for time served with non-profits, either in Canada or abroad. Those youth would get $1,500 per month to cover expenses during their years of volunteer work and up to $6,000 more for education or training.
But that’s not all. Dewar says he’d reduce interest on the federal portion of the student loan to prime (potentially saving students thousands), he would reduce tuition fees by $700 per year and he’d provide $200-million more in grants for low-income, disabled and Aboriginal Canadians.
Continue reading NDP candidate would lavish gifts on students
Where the rich kids go
Guess which universities get the least student financial aid
From Queen's Players "I go to Queen's!"
You know the stereotype that Queen’s University attracts rich kids? The one played up in this recent viral video in which a student jokes: “I don’t know what financial aid is, but Queen’s has it.”
Well, if the number of students receiving financial assistance is any indication, it’s very likely true.
Queen’s University has the lowest number of students receiving Ontario Student Assistance in the province: only 29.6 per cent of students.
Contrast that to Nipissing University in the relatively poorer north of Ontario, where twice as many—59.6 per cent—get loans. It’s almost as high at Trent University—59.3 per cent.
Student union still won’t publish its budget
Students currently need to meet with the VP Finance to see details
Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani.
The University of Prince Edward Island Student Union says it will continue to keep the details of its budgets “for members only.” In other words, these pie charts with no figures attached are all that will remain posted on their website—the place where the public would normally expect to find details.
This comes after students demanded at a meeting last week that the union make their plans for spending easier to find, reports The Cadre.
That meeting resulted from a Facebook post that made the rounds. It said: “$700 of your dollars will go to the UPEISU over four years. Do you think that the SU budget should be accessible to the students and be able to see how they’re spending your money? Post this if you are concerned…”
Continue reading Student union still won’t publish its budget
Rock-bottom prices on The Rock
Why students are flocking to Memorial University
Memorial University student. By Andrew Tolson.
The 21st Maclean’s University Rankings includes a close look at Atlantic Canada’s schools. To read more, buy your copy today.
Amber Haighway, a fifth-year music education student at Memorial University (MUN) in St. John’s, Nfld., has many jealous friends studying in places like Toronto, New Brunswick and back home in Nova Scotia. They say things like, “I can’t believe you pay that little for a whole semester—that’s the price of one course at my school.” It’s not far from the truth. As the Glace Bay native explains, “it’s more affordable to travel from Nova Scotia and pay for school, books and housing in Newfoundland than to go 10 minutes down the road to Cape Breton University and live at home with my parents.”
Quebec launches site to sell tuition increase
Students react swiftly with copycat site
Minister Line Beauchamp from Quebec Gov. Video
Quebec’s Liberal government has launched a new website to convince students of the fairness of the annual $325 tuition fee increase that will bring tuition to $3,793 in 2016-17.
But a coalition of student groups quickly launched their own anti-tuition website, which looks almost exactly the same as the government’s.
Student groups cried foul last week when they learned that Quebec had budgeted $50,000 for Internet advertising, including some that attempts to re-route Internet users to the governments’ site whenever they search the names of activist organizations on Google, reported La Presse.
Tens of thousands of students protested the Charest governments’ increase last week, despite the fact that Quebec will continue to have some of the lowest fees in North America even after the rise.
Continue reading Quebec launches site to sell tuition increase
How to justify purchasing a smartphone
Eight apps that can help students save money
Smartphone photo by leyla.a on Flickr.
From the Maclean’s University Rankings. For more university advice, get your copy today!
Let’s face it: university is expensive. Between tuition, textbooks and having a social life, the cost adds up quickly. Luckily, smartphones can cut costs with a range of apps designed to manage money and track expenses. Forget bank tellers. Since the first mobile banking application became available in Canada in early 2010, the number of Canadians using daily mobile banking has climbed to more than 2.5 million, according to a July report by the Toronto-based Solutions Research Group.
Not surprisingly, the number of apps has also exploded. Here, in no particular order, are the top eight for saving money via your smartphone.
1. Mobile banking apps
Cost: Free
Available for: iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry or any Internet-enabled device
Standing in line at the bank is as exciting as a library tour. Luckily, Canada’s “Big Five”—the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce—all offer a full suite of mobile apps for everyday banking transactions such as checking account balances, paying bills, and transferring money. Plus, you can use your bank’s ATM locator to avoid wallet-gouging fees from machines outside your bank’s network.
More police than protestors in London
Tuition rally fizzles
Outside the LSX. By Paul Robertson on Flickr.
Despite having 4,000 police ready in case the protest got out of hand, Scotland Yard says that only about 2,500 protesters showed up for a mass rally against high tuition fees in London, U.K. Organizers, on the other hand, told Sky News that 10,000 showed up, though they hoped more would have joined. After all, more than 50,000 marched with the same demands in the summer, during which protesters smashed the windows of the Conservative party’s headquarters.
At today’s protest, students carried placards denouncing the government’s policy that allowed tuition fees to rise to $14,500 at many schools. Some showed their middle finger as they passed the London Stock Exchange. Twenty were arrested by 4 p.m. local time, police told The Telegraph.
Police had warned on Monday that they would use rubber bullets and batons if necessary to quell violent protesters. Twitter users blamed police intimidation for the lower-than-expected turnout.
Is the U.S. tuition system more progressive?
Why Canadian students graduate with more debt, not less
Too much debt? Photo by Zach Klein on Flickr.
Canadians are graduating with more debt than their American counterparts—despite the well-known higher sticker prices south of the border.
In the U.S., average debt at graduation rose to $25,250 in 2010, according to a Nov. 3 report by the Project on Student Debt. Here in Canada, students were graduating with an average debt of $26,680 according to a 2009 report released by the Millennium Scholarship Foundation. If anything, the Canadian average is higher now.
The numbers seem almost impossible: isn’t tuition ridiculously high in the U.S.?
Continue reading Is the U.S. tuition system more progressive?
How much should professors make?
In my opinion, they’re paid well enough already.
Photo by ggbaker on Panoramio
More than 1,000 students at Brandon University have signed a petition asking for their tuition money back because of a faculty strike that caused classes to be cancelled since Oct. 12.
But the Brandon University Student’s Union (BUSU), which has collected the signatures, doesn’t blame the professors—who are striking for the second time in three years—for their three weeks of missed classes. BUSU supports the picketing profs. They agree they’re underpaid.
But are Brandon’s professors really underpaid? More importantly—are professors underpaid in general? It’s a question students and taxpayers should ask—they’re the ones who pay the bills.
