Four per cent of Carleton’s overall budget—about $20 million of the university’s total revenue of $500 million—will be cut as a result of the provincially-mandated cut in tuition fees, according to university president Benoit-Antoine Bacon.
The provincial changes will be implemented in the 2019-20 school year, but there will be no drastic changes to the fee structure that students pay.
Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said in an email that despite the provincial changes, Carleton will work towards maintaining the academic accessibility of the school.
“Carleton will adjust its budget with the goal to minimize possible impacts on our academic mission, which includes alumni engagement,” Reid said.
Bacon told the Charlatan that the proposed changes will not impact international students who may be concerned that the university will increase tuition fees for international students to balance the cuts to its budget.
“The university has a long-term plan—it’s a multi-year plan in terms of international student tuition increase,” he said. “Our commitment is not to let what’s happening with the domestic students affect our international student plan.”
Bacon also said the tuition decrease may help increase admissions.
“Maybe that will play in our favour in public opinion,” he said. “Our business is to convert the offers into students that are actually going to come.”
According to Suzanne Blanchard, Carleton’s vice-president (students and enrolment), international students will not see changes to their tuition that are different from those in previous years.
“It’s not as if we’re going to go into double digits,” she said.
Blanchard also said changes to tuition will not affect the entrance scholarships that students receive.
Along with a decrease in tuition, the provincial government is also proposing changes to OSAP.
The new changes to OSAP include reduced grants for the lowest income students and a higher proportion of loans for middle- to high-income students.
According to Bacon, the tuition decrease can be managed, but the OSAP changes are out of the university’s hands.
Brenna Mackay, operations and communications coordinator at Carleton’s awards office, said the impact of the tuition decrease and OSAP changes will not be individualized.
“It’s tough to say because it is going to be a 10 per cent decrease for all Ontario schools and OSAP changes all across Ontario, so I’m not sure if that will have a larger impact here than any other institution,” she said. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
“Right now, all we really have is the press release from the government,” Mackay added. “We should know more when the spring applications come out.”
According to the Carleton undergraduate admissions website, the last day for the university to receive spring applications is April 1.
According to David Oladejo, the Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) president, a $20 million decrease in the university’s budget may impact the services students are offered.
“Different things—ranging from health and counselling to academic support—whenever money’s coming out of the budget, obviously, there has to be cuts made,” he said.
Oladejo said CUSA plans on introducing more scholarships in the new year in order to help students most affected by the changes to OSAP based on partnerships it has with organizations outside the university.
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