All Posts Tagged With: "tuition fees"

Protests underway from coast to coast

Today, students from Memorial University of Newfoundland to the University of British Columbia are participating in the National Day of Action organized by the Canadian Federation of Students.

Through marches and on social media, they’re promoting the idea that Education is a Right.

Their explicit demands are for lower tuition fees, less student debt and more public funding.

The CFS says that the average student with debt owes $25,000 by graduation and that public funding has dropped from 81 per cent of operating costs of universities 20 years ago to 57 per cent today—all while tuition has risen from 14 per cent of operating funding to more than 35 per cent.

In other words, students are paying more of their own costs for university than ever before, which makes it difficult for low and middle-income students to get through school and then pay off debts.

The campaign is being discussed widely on Twitter with the tags #feb1 #cfsfcee or #cdnpse.

Peggy Nash, a candidate for the New Democratic Party’s leadership has already tweeted in solidarity and provided a link to her Plan to make Post-Secondary Education Accessible.

In Newfoundland, which already has among the lowest tuition anywhere, conservative Premier Kathy Dunderdale attended a National Day of Action event this morning and said that, during her lifetime, she’d like to see students’ first degrees paid for by the province, reports VOCM radio.

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

News comes as study reveals rapidly growing tuition rates

Photo by feelsgoodlost on Flickr

As some American students continued their Occupy protests on Wednesday, President Barack Obama was being cheered by other students in Colorado where he announced he will speed up his initiatives to help students overcome debt.

“We should be doing everything we can to put college education within reach for every American,” the President said in what CNN describes as a “campaign-style event.”

Obama announced that a program to limit the repayment of federal student loan debt to 10 per cent of discretionary income will start next year, instead of the year after. And he said that students will be able to consolidate public and private loans to save on interest charges.

Continue reading Obama offers students debt relief

Prof. Pettigrew explains the basics of grad school

Photo by Gibson Claire McGuire Regester

Even if you’ve just started university, you may already be wondering what graduate school is all about. By “graduate school” I don’t mean professional programs like law or medicine or education; I’m talking about continuing your studies in the same academic discipline you’re majoring in now, like Anthropology or Physics at the master’s level. Obviously, every school and program will have unique features, and you should do your own research to decide where to go and what to take. But here are a few thoughts to help you decide whether a graduate degree may be right for you in the first place.

1. Is it hard to get into a graduate program?

Yes. Graduate programs will often give a minimum requirement for admission (say a B or a B-) but in reality, the standards are usually much higher. You will generally need at least an A- average.

Continue reading Should I pursue a master’s degree?

Students back university, criticize lack of provincial bursary support

The majority of McGill MBA students support the program’s high tuition, according to a survey released by the MBA Student Association on Friday.

The release comes just days after the provincial government announced it would be fining McGill $2.1 million for raising MBA tuition without permission. Fees in the program rose from $3,400 to $29,500 last fall. The university has refused provincial funding for the program since the increase.

According to the student association, 70 per cent of those surveyed said that “the program is at a reasonable or below reasonable price.”

Students in the program are no longer eligible for provincial bursaries, in an interview about that issue last month, the president of the MBA Student Association, Pat Tenneriello, told me that the majority of students support the increase “because we see the investment.”

According to the student association, new professors have been hired and the program has already improved in international rankings.

The student association also used the release of the survey to criticize the lack of bursary support. “Our decision to pay the market price for our education should not affect our ability to receive funding in support of our endeavours to become future industry leaders within Quebec,” the release says.

While the Quebec government continued to thaw the tuition freeze in Thursday’s budget, tuition fees for provincially funded programs will still be assessed at a standardized per-credit rate.

They don’t agree on where it should come from

Last week, the culture and education committee of Quebec’s National Assembly released their report on a series of presentations by university heads that took place in late August and early September.

The heads of Quebec’s 18 universities are required to appear before the committee every three years. For the most part the presentations, and their accompanying reports, focus on things like student population, the number of professors, new programs and research accomplishments. However, this year’s presentations were marked by calls from McGill, Concordia and Université de Montréal for tuition hikes.

Because the report is the product of a multi-party committee, the few recommendations it does present are rather vague. More often the committee says it hopes that solutions can be found to the problems facing Quebec’s universities but stops short of making recommendations. But there are some interesting things in the report.

The committee found that there was a “strong consensus” from university directors that Quebec’s university system is under-funded and that this is making it difficult for them to do their jobs properly.

However university administrators are divided on where that money should come from. While some suggested tuition hikes, others disagreed, calling for more government funding or private sector involvement. The issue of accessibility also came up frequently in connection with discussions of tuition. All of the directors agreed that accessibility is important but they disagree on how to ensure it and how it relates to tuition increases.

While the director of HEC Montreal, Michel Patry, said that ensuring accessibility shouldn’t get in the way of ensuring long term quality, the director of the École nationale de l’administration public, Marcel Proulx, told the committee that the issue of accessibility is inseparable from tuition.

The issue of differentiated tuition also came up, currently all provincially-funded university programs in Quebec charge the same tuition fees, and again there was no consensus. Even among the universities calling for tuition increases there wasn’t total support for differentiated fees, with former Concordia president, Judith Woodsworth calling them “risky” and “dangerous.”

The only recommendation made by the committee in relation to finances was a call for Ottawa to increase funding for the indirect costs of research, things like lab maintenance and ensuring safety standards.

The committee called for the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities, a lobby group that represents all the universities in the province, to develop standardized performance indicators for universities.

As well, the committee recommended that universities make efforts to encourage people to stay in school at the high school and CEGEP levels as well as once they enter university.

And, this being Quebec, language also came up. At issue is the fact that some French-language schools are providing courses in English and other languages. The committee recommends that francophone universities put “clear guidelines” in place if they plan on teaching in languages other than French.

Due to costs and tight labour market, going to law school may not pay off for a large number of students

The problem with having a two-week Christmas break right after exams is that the holiday comes smack in the middle of post-first-year-midterm malaise. Accordingly, when very well-meaning people would ask me how law school was going, my answer was usually any or all of me bursting into tears, straight up walking away while mumbling or looking them straight in the eye and saying something like “It’s totally not worth it.”

Apparently, had I wanted to back up my overly-emotional sentiment with some facts, I could have appealed to a rather unlikely ally: The American Bar Association.

Hidden deep on their website is this little four-page PDF gem that basically says that for almost half the people who go to law school, it’s totally not worth it to go to law school:

The combination of the rising cost of a legal education and the realities of the legal job market mean that going to law school may not pay off for a large number of law students.

Here are some of the most uplifting statistics (all American, by the way):

• The average public law student borrows $71,436 for law school
• The average private school student borrows $91,506
• Most American public law schools raised tuition this year by 10 to 25 per cent to make up for funding shortfalls
• In 2009, 42 per cent of law school grads had starting salaries of less than $65,000/year

It’s hard to argue with statistics, especially ones that paint a picture devoid of all sunshine. It’s also doubtlessly true that any potential students, law or otherwise, should do their research before applying and enrolling. But I still find the whole thing to be a little eyebrow raising.

For one, I’ve yet to meet a law student who did no research and simply applied to school because they thought a JD was some kind of golden ticket that would get them the super awesome apartment they saw on The Good Wife. It’s kind of insulting to potential law students, all of whom have financed at least one degree somehow, to be like “Spoiler alert, people: Law school is expensive.”

Moreover, it’s strange to me that the American Bar Association itself seems to be of the opinion that a law degree’s sole worth is grounded in its future earning potential. I know I gripe a lot about law school, but every day there is something that makes it worth it, and it has nothing to do with an imagined salary five years down the road. Law school is an aspirational gambit, and for nobody I know is the end game money. It’s also really hard, and I don’t believe you’d make it if the only thing pulling you through was the prospect of 50 Bentleys in the West Indies.

There are lots of good reasons for going, though, and it’s strange to me that those have all been skipped over in this little tome. Law school is full of interesting people and fascinating new facts and whole new worlds of things to become passionate about and people to be nerdy about learning around, not to mention a world of future careers at all kinds of pay grades. Maybe the ABA should spend a little more time advocating for that, or, heaven forbid, advocating for the cost of a legal education to go down a bit.

Cost of education rises at more than double the rate of inflation

Students are paying higher tuition fees, which have increased at more than double the rate of inflation, according to Statistics Canada’s yearly round up of the cost of education, released yesterday. On average, Canadian undergraduate students will pay $5,138 in 2010-11 for one year of university, compared to $4,942 in 2009-10, a  four per cent hike. The consumer price index rose by 1.8 per cent.

Across the country, there was significant variation in the tuition rate, which ranged from a low of $2,415 in Quebec to a high of $6,307 in Ontario. All but three provinces saw tuition increase to some extent. Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick saw no change in tuition fees and tuition in Nova Scotia declined (4.5 per cent) for the third year in a row.

Tuition fees for graduate students increased faster than for undergraduates, at 6.6 per cent. The national average for graduate school tuition is $5,182, ranging from a low of $2,456 in Newfoundland to a high of $7,350 in Nova Scotia. Although, like their undergraduate counterparts, Nova Scotia’s graduate students saw a decrease in fees of 4.5 per cent. In fact, all four Maritime provinces saw a reduction in tuition for graduate students this year. Master’s of Business Administration programs were the most expensive graduate programs at a national average of $21,118, and $28,773 for executive MBA programs.

As for professional programs, students in dentistry paid the highest average fees at $14,701, followed by medicine ($10,244) and pharmacy ($9,250). International undergraduate students also saw their tuition increase, at 5.2 per cent, bringing the average rate up to $16,768. Average tuition fees don’t encompass the total increase to the cost of education, as compulsory fees also rose this year to $702 from $656 in 2009-10.

Students groups were unimpressed with the continued trend towards higher tuition fees. The Canadian Federation of Students called Ontario’s status as the jurisdiction with the highest tuition rate, an “embarrassment” in a media release. “While students in Ontario pay the most, they experience the largest classes and are funded at the lowest per capita levels in Canada,” Sandy Hudson, who chairs the group’s Ontario branch, said.

Similarly, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), highlighted how the recession has placed financial constraints on students and their parents. “[S]tudents and families have fewer resources to pay for a post-secondary education as a result of the recession,” CASA’s national director Zach Dayler said.

That’s the question the provincial government will have to answer after UBC Commerce students approve hefty annual fee for building upgrades

On Friday, students in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of British Columbia (UBC) passed a referendum that will see an annual $500 fee (tied to inflation) hoisted on all commerce students for decades to come, money which will go towards extensive renovations to their building. The Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) approved the referendum question the week before last, students debated, and 63 per cent voted in favour of the fee. Simple, right?

Not really. In fact, not by a long shot—it isn’t often that one faculty’s internal politics become a giant issue, but it happened in his case, with every blog on campus talking about it, the vast majority of which were fairly critical of the fee. There are two very different, but fundamental issues, which captivated people.

The first issue is more provocative, but less important long-term: Was this referendum a farce? See, in 2006, Commerce students passed a referendum question that looked pretty much exactly the same . . . but the provincial government deemed it an illegal tuition increase (since 2005 BC has had a two per cent inflationary cap on tuition), and it was axed.

This led to a whole bunch of financing/organizational issues, but most of the funding for the major renovations was eventually secured, except for the pesky little problem of how to fund a $20 million mortgage taken out on the project. Which is where students came in. Again. Only this time, the Dean of Commerce, Dan Muzyka, made very very sure that this would technically be a “student fee” and not a “tuition increase.” It also made him an easy target when he had a closed-door meeting with the CUS to talk to them about initiating the referendum. And when he went from class-to-class to talk up the project. And when an Associate Professor berated a student online who criticized the proposed fee for his economic argument. And when supporters of the project said that the school could lose its accreditation if they didn’t get a new building, without ever showing proof that it was a possibility. And when . . . you get the picture. The degree to which students were pressured to vote a certain way is, at best, against the spirit of a “student fee,” and that’s without even looking at the various issues on how the project has been handled, and whether students are getting a good deal or not .

But that’s inside baseball. The bigger issue is whether, fundamentally, students should pay for academic buildings. Students generally pay for static operating costs through tuition—faculty and such. It certainly sets a precedent. Then again, given the strains on our post-secondary system, this type of issue is going to become more and more prevalent.

Canadian schools that want to compete internationally and aspire to “world-class” status are always in a quandary—they don’t have the endowment or the culture of alumni support of U.S. schools, and support from government is rarely significant. So rapid improvements of programs can be a bit tricky—especially when governments have tuition caps in place, as most provinces do for undergraduate programs.

Given that, the argument goes, if students themselves want to make sacrifices to fund a better education, why shouldn’t they have that choice?

Of course, this all may be moot. The provincial government struck down the Commerce fee three years ago, struck down a mandatory $55 fee at UVic for better athletic facilities last year, and just may do the same with this. Regardless, with the economic climate being what it is, expect more of these outside the box proposals to come down the pipeline, putting more and more pressure on governments to be more flexible.

Tuition rises, class size grows, and the bureaucracy gets big

The annual tuition fee debate has begun. This is the war dance that takes place every winter, when senior university administrators announce that students yet again face substantial hikes. Those administrators roll out the rationale they use every year: the increases are necessary to protect educational quality, top faculty costs top dollar, and the only alternatives are declining quality and staff layoffs or increased government funding. Students get angry. They claim that university is becoming a place for only the wealthy, that quality has suffered enough, and that debt loads are becoming unmanageable. Boards of governors—the guardians of public interest when it comes to the operation of universities—wring their hands and voice genuine empathy. They hope for solutions but find none. And then, as they always do, they approve the increases proposed by senior administration.

Here’s the thing: the students have a point—at least according to a detailed analysis of the finances of Canada’s largest 25 universities. A study of 21 years of data compiled annually by StatsCan for the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) reveals some startling trends. In 1987-88, the top 25 universities spent $6 billion across all their activities; by 2007-08, that had increased by almost four times inflation, to $21 billion. That equates to about 13 per cent of Canada’s health care budget, or more than the entire defence budget. And that’s only the top 25 schools.

Funding trends have driven a stronger focus on research. In 1988, sponsored research—commissioned by governments and corporations—accounted for 14.9 per cent of top 25 expenditures; by 2008, it consumed 24.7 per cent. A parallel decline (from 67.1 per cent to 54.8 per cent) occurred in general operating expenditures. This includes the areas central to undergraduate teaching and student life: instruction, the library, student services, and other functions such as central administration.

The analysis suggests teaching has not just fallen down the priority list; it has been pushed there by conscious resource allocation decisions. Less money is reaching the classroom. In 1988, almost 65 per cent of operating funds were directed to instruction and non-sponsored research, where the teaching happens. By 2008 this had fallen to 58 per cent—an effective cutback of $30 million a year at the average top 25 school. Within the G13 group of Canada’s largest, research-focused universities, the cutback averages $35 million, and $45 million for the top 5 (Toronto, UBC, Alberta, McGill and Montréal).

Why the declines? In large part, they’re because of skyrocketing central administrative costs. Shockingly, 20 cents is now spent on central administration for every dollar spent on instruction and non-sponsored research; back in 1987-88, 12 cents went to administration. At the average top 25 university, central administration (including external relations) now consumes $18 million that previously would have flowed to instruction. (For a G13 school, it’s $20 million; for the top 5, $39 million.)