The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) recently launched a campaign calling on the provincial government to implement a four-year fully-funded tuition freeze starting in 2017.
The campaign, called “Time Out,” is demanding a fee freeze in Ontario’s next tuition framework, which will be updated in 2016-17.
“We’ve crossed an important line,” said Spencer Nestico-Semianiw, OUSA’s president and vice-president of the McMaster University Students’ Union. “Students have for the first time become the largest contributor to the post-secondary sector.”
More than 50 per cent of university operating budgets are paid by students, compared to the 20 per cent paid in the past with funding from the provincial government, he said.
The reality is the government has acknowledged Ontario universities to be “publicly assisted,” not “publicly funded,” according to Nestico-Semianiw.
“Tuition is not only rising—it’s rising faster than inflation, faster than government contributions, and faster than students can afford to pay,” he said.
The average Ontario undergraduate student paid $7,868 in tuition fees last year, which is the highest in the country, according to Statistics Canada. Saskatchewan’s average followed at $6,885 and Nova Scotia third at $6,817.
Students in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec paid the lowest tuition fees, averaging paying about $2,660 and $2,799, respectively.
Erika Shaker, director of education and outreach for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives wrote in an email, “Tuition fees have been rising in direct proportion to the withdrawal of public funding. In provinces where the level of provincial support is high, tuition fees are low. This is most obvious in Newfoundland and Quebec, but also in provinces with high fees like Ontario.”
Under the current Ontario tuition framework, universities are allowed to increase undergraduate tuition prices annually by an average of three per cent. Professional programs, such as dentistry, are allowed an average five per cent increase every year.
Governments can cap tuition prices but if there are no adequate levels of public funding, then universities will be in a position where they will need to find money from other less-regulated sources, Shaker said. She mentioned cuts to program funding and reducing workers’ wages as examples.
With the OUSA campaign, Nestico-Semianiw said if tuition fees are indeed frozen, he hopes universities’ ability to provide for Ontarians will not be affected.
“We don’t want to see universities not have the means to be competitive or provide a quality education, quality services to students. We want all of that lost in revenue from the tuition freeze to be completely made up by increased provincial investments,” Nestico-Semianiw said.
Ontario wouldn’t be the first province to freeze tuition in recent years if it decides to do so. Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, and New Brunswick have tuition freezes in place for the 2015-16 academic year.
Second-year Carleton University student Charissa Feres works at various childcare centres during the week when she doesn’t have classes, and referees for soccer games during weekends or evenings.
“[Tuition prices] definitely affect mental health, stressing about not being able to pay for tuition in time or worrying about late fees, and then there’s the interest,” said Feres, who is majoring in law and psychology.
“I’m on OSAP [Ontario Student Assistance Program],” Feres said. “It does help, but that’s mostly loans so you have to pay them back.”
The Time Out campaign will run at OUSA’s seven member campuses.
