The Cost of a Canadian Education Just Got Higher

Today the tuition freeze set by the Liberal party 2 years ago was lifted by the ministry of Ontario's colleges and universities. Beginning next fall tuitions across Ontario will see an average rise of 5% for science and arts programs, and 8% for professional programs. Engineering, medicine, law and accounting are all classified under “professional programs.”

Allow me to give you an inside look into the amount of money spent by and engineering undergrad. When I entered university the tuition was roughly $4200 per term, which means you had to pay $8400 per school year, not including books, food, residence, parking etc. If you do the math you will find out that I will be paying roughly $10,000 for my last year with the new increase. And I’m actually quite lucky. Why you ask? Well I don’t have to live on residence and my program has an incorporated cooperative education program, which lets us work between school terms. But what about the other students? How will they be able to afford an education this expensive? I personally haven’t seen a 5% wage increase for working students over the years, and figures published yearly by the university support my observations. Furthermore, coop students are pretty much denied any OSAP funding (an interest free loan while you study) since they are seen as being well off by the university. So combining an 8% increase in tuition payment, with a constant income, and minus any financial assistance, shows how screwed some of us will be in the upcoming years.

The province calls this new move the “reaching higher” plan. In response to that Jesse Greener, Ontario Federation of Students Spokesman said " [this plan is] reaching for higher tuition fees, reaching for higher debt," in a press conference today. In 2004 the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance published a report saying “the average student debt from government loans among graduates was $21,700 in Ontario, well above the national average of $18,900. This represents a doubling of debt over the past decade. At the same time, public support to manage debt has been reduced. Over the past nine years, the average amount of a provincial grant has declined 62.9%” That was of course during the tuition freeze, things are only going to get worse.

Here are where things don’t make sense to me the most. The Ontario government has been whining and complaining about the 50% dropout rate of high school students. How does a tuition increase encourage high school students to pursue higher education? On another note, according to Stats Canada, 2005 saw “Canada's federal, provincial, territorial, and local governments (as well as the two major pension plans) record a combined surplus of $12.1 billion.” Where’s the funding into Canada’s future? It’s a cliché phrase but investing into universities is an investment into Canada’s future.

The government isn’t the only one to blame. I blame university students for not putting their right to vote to good use. The day of the election I went to a public lecture at Waterloo where the speaker asked the audience (composed of university students) “so who voted today?” I only saw a few hands go up. We’re throwing away our political power by our lack of interest and knowledge. I hope this is a wake up call for all those who didn’t vote.

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