Students at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) will pay thousands more in tuition as of this fall in an effort to pay down the province’s eight or nine-figure deficit, a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) shows.
According to student leaders at MUN, the tuition increase concerns local and out-of-province students alike and is projected to drive thousands of students away, despite the university and province deeming it instrumental to keeping post-secondary education competitively affordable.
David Macdonald, CCPA’s senior economist, detailed in January how plans to raise MUN’s domestic and international undergraduate tuition from $10,200 to $25,480 and from $43,120 to $84,930, respectively, could affect students and the university’s competitive advantage of affordability.
Macdonald said raising tuition conflicts with the likelihood of Newfoundland and Labrador’s current estimated $595-million deficit becoming surplus in five years. He called the current deficit a “temporary phenomenon” caused by the pandemic’s overestimated impacts on revenue.
The study noted such tuition rises could cause MUN to lose a fifth of its students.
“The danger here is that you make drastic long-term changes to key programs that are attempting to retain an important population of the province,” Macdonald told the Charlatan.
He said that based on repeated substantial revisions to Newfoundland and Labrador’s deficit last year, waiting for surplus may be more worthwhile than “loading up [students] with substantial amounts of debt.”
“They’re not being looked to as the future of provincial growth,” he said. “They’re being looked to as a debt transfer mechanism.”
The province disputes the CCPA’s report. A statement to the Charlatan on behalf of Education Minister Tom Osborne said the “suggestion that tuition is increasing so the province can balance its budget is not factual.”
“The report takes a short-sighted view of the province’s fiscal situation, claiming that because economic growth is improving there is no need of any changes in how Memorial is funded,” the statement read, adding Newfoundland and Labrador prioritizes long-term sustainability.
The statement added that Newfoundland and Labrador chose to phase out MUN’s tuition freeze grant and redirect funding to students as they start paying higher tuition.
While MUN’s regular operating grant freezes for the next five years, its new tuition relief grant, which was announced in July, aids in-province students who fall below a certain income threshold by making them automatically eligible for “total forgiveness” of loans upon graduation.
“Our commitment to keeping post-secondary education affordable and accessible has not wavered,” the statement continued.
Hilary Hennessey, director of external affairs, communications and research for the MUN Students’ Union (MUNSU), said she’s heard from students that MUN is losing appeal as a low-cost university.
Hennessey, who is from Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove, Nfld., said the tuition rise lacks academic and economic sensibility and makes MUN a less viable option for both in-province and out-of-province students.
As an advocate for universal education and persons with disabilities, she said the tuition rise especially concerns in-province students who have more limitations.
“Those who are from marginalized groups and vulnerable populations and low-income families really are now considering the fact that [they] may not ever be able to obtain a university education and … afford moving outside of the province,” Hennessey said.
Frances Utomi, MUNSU’s director of undeclared students and an international student from Nigeria, said the tuition rise affects students regardless of privilege.
“It’s just very, very scary to see that our price is going from literally $250 per course to like $600 because it’s not everyone that can afford that much money,” she said.
According to Utomi, the privilege for her and many other international students is simply getting to study at MUN. She said more jobs for international students would help offset higher tuitions and called for better communication on rising costs.
In a July 2021 statement, MUN president Vianne Timmons said raising tuition was no easy decision and students would remain “at the heart of” the university’s operations.
“This change is necessary given the provincial government’s planned $68.4-million cut to the university grant over the next five years, effectively ending government support for the tuition freeze,” Timmons said.
She added that MUN would continue prioritizing its accessibility and affordability and had implemented $42-million in operational efficiencies since 2016.
Katherine McLaughlin, the Canadian Federation of Students chairperson for Newfoundland and Labrador and MUNSU’s part-time student representative, said the province lacks in prioritizing its younger population.
“I don’t see any benefit for a province with an incredibly aging population to be very clearly putting its debt directly on the backs of young people,” McLaughlin said.
Being from St. Stephen, N.B., McLaughlin said the isolated nature of Newfoundland and Labrador makes travel alone “incredibly expensive” for out-of-province students.
And while she called Newfoundland and Labrador “an isolated rock where you’re going to be pelted with rain on a daily basis,” she added that MUN’s lower tuition made living there worthwhile.
“There’s not anything left at MUN that we can point to and say, ‘Well, we have this to offer that’s superior to the rest of the country,’” she said.
McLaughlin said lower enrollment means Newfoundland and Labrador will not only attract fewer students but also fewer families.
“Young people are just feeling like there’s not a future here in this province anymore and I think that’s going to have some pretty tragic consequences.”
Featured image by David Howells via Memorial University.
