Calling for universities to lower tuition through protests is a good way for students to voice their concerns about the rising cost of post-secondary education. However, students should combine protests with other strategies to further offset tuition.
In Quebec, students have been protesting for lower tuition rates since the 1960s. According to Statistics Canada, the average price of tuition in Quebec in the 2014-2015 academic year was $2,743—the second-lowest rate in Canada.
Tuition will continue to rise due to inflation and other economic factors. So, in combination with protests, students should also call on other groups for more ways to make education more accessible by offsetting the cost. For example, Newfoundland and Labrador has stopped loaning money to students. Instead, the province began offering them non-repayable grants on Aug. 1, 2015. This is on top of their tuition that is already the lowest in Canada, at $2,631 on average.
Instead of protesting, students throughout the rest of Canada could call on their universities for more scholarship and grant opportunities and tuition subsidies. Students could ask their provincial governments to provide more tax breaks for parents who help their kids pay for their tuition. Students could also call on the government to provide grants rather than loans, following Newfoundland and Labrador’s model.
Lower tuition is in everyone’s best interest at all levels of government, and all walks of life. If students have less debt, or no debt, when they graduate, they can contribute to the economy instead of focusing their finances on repaying loans.
