Nova Scotia university students may face hefty tuition increases now that the last funds from a government bursary program have dried up, according to a report submitted Jan. 10 to Dalhousie University by the school’s budget advisory committee.
In 2008, the provincial government established a $65-million bursary fund as a means of leveling tuition costs in Nova Scotia with those in other provinces, explained Krista Higdon, a communications advisor with the Nova Scotia Department of Education.
The money was used to defray the tuition costs for each student who attends a post-secondary institution in the province. That money will run out sometime during the current semester, meaning that without renewed government support, students will have to begin to carry the full weight themselves.
“It’s a bummer, definitely,” said Mike Malott, a second-year commerce student at Dalhousie University, “I myself could probably still manage to afford the costs, but I know some friends who might have to drop out, or transfer, or borrow –none of which are fun times.”
Statistics Canada data for 2010 suggests that the average costs for undergraduate studies in Nova Scotia are the third-highest in Canada at about $5,500 a year. Graduate programs are the most expensive in the country, at about $7,350 per year. Currently, the government covers anywhere between 8 and 20 per cent of these costs, depending on the program, money that the report stated students might soon be responsible for.
However, Higdon said she was convinced that the money will return in some capacity.
“The education minister (Marilyn More) has committed to help out the schools in one way or another,” she said, “whether that means renewing the bursary program, or finding some other route to lowering tuition costs, she hasn’t said. But in the meantime, we’ve been holding several meetings with students and parents, aimed at improving our student assistance programs at the universities.”
Malott mentioned that Dalhousie is stricter toward out-of-province students when it comes to scholarships. “For Atlantic Canadians, scholarships are available with an 80 per cent average, but if you’re from anywhere else, they start at 85 per cent.”
He also bemoaned the high cost of living in Halifax, where “rent is $600 a month for my roommates and I for a five-bedroom flat that is pretty small.”
I wouldn’t mind getting some of my tuition back to help pay for it,” he said.
“The way it works is not that students get a refund,” Higdon explained. “The bursary funds go directly to the schools, and then students pay the remainder.”
So, should tuition costs rise, some students might not understand the reasons behind it, according to Mallott.
“Until they started talking about the money running out of the bursary fund, I actually didn’t know there was one,” he said. “People who don’t keep up with the news might think that the school is just getting greedy, unaware that these are the same costs we’ve had to pay all along, just with some help from the government.”