In a Sept. 30 speech delivered at Carleton University, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the end of the current tuition freeze, originally set in September 2004.
Vice-Principal (Academic) Patrick Deane told the Journal this means there is a “strong potential” that domestic tuition fees at Queen’s will rise.
“Students need to know that the University has no desire to erect obstacles to access, but at the same time the University has a responsibility to maintain the quality of education that students receive here,” he said.
Deane added the University is waiting for the province to announce parameters surrounding tuition fees, at which point actual decisions can be made.
“The Principal has an advisory committee on budget and that group will discuss whatever decision the government makes about deregulation, and then assess where Queen’s should place itself on the scale of increases,” he said.
According to Shiva Mayer, VP (university affairs), the AMS and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) are advocating for a tuition cap to remain in place until what they call a “suitable and fair cost-sharing situation” can be reached between students and the provincial government.
“OUSA policy direction [comes] from input from Queen’s [and] the direction that OUSA is going, and what they are lobbying the provincial government for is an effective freeze, not an absolute freeze.
“An effective freeze is where the price of tuition goes up by [the] consumer price index, and [an] absolute freeze is what we are coming out of right now.”
Deane said an increase in fees is necessary, despite the recent provincial injection.
“The University, up until the current budget year, has been operating in a very difficult situation with annual cuts and a substandard level of funding from government,” he said.
“Everyone, in a sense, has to share in maintenance of standards, and that would make it logical that some of this will be covered by student fees.”
Mayer, who is also the AMS’s external representative to OUSA, said he’d prefer for the tuition freeze to continue.
“The reason I support and advocate for a freeze is because [Ontario students] spend more than most other [students in Canada],” he said.
According to Statistics Canada, the average cost of a post-secondary education in Ontario is the second highest in the country, behind Nova Scotia.
Mayer said both OUSA and the AMS feel that a reasonable, predictable and fair division of the cost of university tuition would be one in which 70 per cent of costs are absorbed by the government and 30 per cent are paid by the students.
“[This division of fees is a] good goal for the immediate future,” he said. “It’s a reasonable way of dividing the cost of university education between students and the government.”
Students currently pay approximately 45 per cent of the cost, Mayer said.
“As of the numbers we have right now, they haven’t been updated in a while, they actually date from a couple of years ago,” he said. “As we have been in a freeze and funding hasn’t changed, it would be current right up to this year.”
Pat Welsh, AMS academic affairs commissioner, said he thinks tuition costs are already too high.
“The current amount that we pay is unfair,” he said. “Nowadays students will kill to only have to pay 30 per cent.” Welsh said middle-income families will face the greatest financial difficulties now that tuition fees may rise.
“The top end of the low income families to the bottom end of the upper middle class, the ‘grey majority,’ will be affected,” he said. “It’s those who don’t have access to financial aid or a means to go to university. It’s a situation of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Mayer agreed that there are many students who would be in trouble if the fees increased.
“There are a lot of people on the margins who can be pushed off if tuition increases substantially,” he said.
He added he believes that despite having to pay more, students will continue to enroll in university.
“I feel that we will have a province with more debt. The demand is there … the importance of the degree has gone up,” he said. “The feeling is that the provincial government is keen on grants-based assistantship and they are committed to more funding for OSAP.
“This means, of course, that there will be more funding, but with more funding comes an overall increase in student debts.”
In an Oct. 7 announcement, Human Resources Minister Belinda Stronach said $1.5 billion will be spent over the next two years to promote access to post-secondary education.
Mayer said he does not know what the impact of the money from the federal government will be.
“The problem with the money [is that] it would appear that the government is not really sure what they are going to do,” he said.
Mayer said the provincial government is expected to release more information about tuition fees in December.
Welsh said the AMS will be running a campaign called “Put a lid on it: cap tuition” from Nov. 14 to 18 to raise awareness about tuition fees.
“It’s as much about awareness as it is a call for a tuition cap,” he said.
Mayer added the campaign is being run in conjunction with OUSA as a way to make students aware of the group’s stance on tuition fees, and was planned before the Premier’s announcement.
Wook Choi, ArtSci ’07, said he won’t be as affected by the announcement because he doesn’t pay his own fees.
“In my case, my parents pay for my tuition, so I guess that it doesn’t affect me as much as other people,” he said.
Matt Code, ArtSci ’08, said he doesn’t feel an increase in tuition fees would be fair.
“As a film student I do not see enough resources being put into the [Arts and Science] department at Queen’s to feel I personally should have to pay more tuition,” he said.
Renee Rodgers, ArtSci ’08, said the end of the freeze has her concerned about how she will afford tuition in the future.
“I don’t want there to be a raise in tuition costs, because I certainly can’t afford to pay them,” she said. “I’m stressed out enough due to a lack of finances.”
—With files from Christina Bossart and Tamsyn Burgmann
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