Tuition+Fees

Here is an article from //[|The Daily]//, published by [|Statistics Canada], describing tuition fees in Canada.

Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs paid 3.6% more on average on tuition fees in the 2008/2009 academic year compared with a year earlier. This follows a 2.8% increase in 2007/2008. Full-time undergraduate students paid an average of $4,724 in tuition fees for the 2008/2009 academic year, up from $4,558 a year earlier. This is an annual average increase of 4.4% over the tuition of $3,064 paid in 1998/1999. In contrast, inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose at an annual average rate of 2.3% between 1998/1999 and 2007/2008. Compared with a year earlier, tuition fees for full-time undergraduate students in the 2008/2009 academic year increased in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. Fees remained virtually unchanged in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and declined in Nova Scotia. The highest fees were found in Nova Scotia, despite a large decline as a result of the implementation of the Nova Scotia University Student Bursary Trust in March 2008, which pays institutions directly. In 2008/2009, $261 was deducted from the annual tuition fees of full-time students from Nova Scotia who study at 1 of the 11 institutions targeted by the trust. Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have the lowest tuition fees.

Graduate students face smaller increase than undergrads
Overall, graduates paid 3.3% more for tuition than a year earlier compared with a 3.6% increase for undergraduate students. On average, graduate students paid $5,777 in tuition fees this fall.


 * This article can be accessed at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/081009/dq081009a-eng.htm

On the one hand I believe that post-secondary education show be possible for all Canadians, and lowering tuition fees will help in that regard. On the other hand, Canadian Universities are already underfunded, and capping tuition fees only aggrevates that problem. I believe that all levels of government should increase funding to Universities, but I do not agree that keeping tuition fees at unsustainably low levels is the answer.

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