Ontario students are paying the highest tuition fees in the country (Graphic: Talbert Johnson)

Ontario students are now paying the highest tuition fees in Canada – a part of that is due to a significant increase in compulsory fees.

Compulsory fees increased by 6.8 per cent. Compulsory fees include fees for athletics, student health services and a student association. This year students will shell out $749 in compulsory fees, up from the $701 they paid in 2008-09.

These high costs are making prospective students question the value of a university degree, according to Dan Moulton, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA).  In an environment where 70 per cent of the work force requires a university degree, can Canada afford to charge such prohibitive fees?

“The government needs to boost subsidies.  A better educated population is better for the economy and in turn for the government,” said Katie Shapiro, a first-year student at Ottawa University.

Encouraged by her peers, she said she will be heading out on Oct. 29 to support the Drop Fees campaign in their Halloween Action event on the U of O campus.

This year, there is a special focus on fee increases in Ontario because the current regulation put in place by past premier Bob Rae expires, and new rules must be put in place.  His Reaching Higher program capped tuition increases at 5 per cent. 

“If you tell an institution it can raise tuition by 5 per cent a year it will do just that,” Moutlon said.

The major change to legislation student lobby groups are looking for is a yearly cap that is comparable to inflation. With increases double and sometimes triple inflation, it is hard for many students to keep up, especially with the low employment conditions that existed this summer.

“We are advocating for an overhaul of the Ontario Student Assistance Program because it is broken,” Moulton said.

OSAP provides grants and interest-free loans to Ontario students. The average the amount of debt that students finish university with is currently $26,000, Moulton said.

Another reason tuition is higher in Ontario is that students pay 40 per cent of the university operating costs, two percent higher than the national average. Premier Dalton McGuinty has asked for input from the OUSA in defining the new legislation.