The future may be an expensive one for Canadian students, warns Carleton professor Ian Lee, the MBA Director at the Sprott School of Business. Lee said he believes tuition fees for students in Canada, and especially Ontario, will rise in the next few years as the Canadian government is forced to relinquish financial control over education to schools and private businesses to stave off its growing healthcare debt.
“I am not suggesting privatizing education, and I am not speaking on behalf of the administration,” Lee cautioned, “but the government is in dire straights. Ontario alone has a $25 billion deficit, and healthcare costs continue to climb,” Lee said. Since Canadians love their healthcare, it’s unlikely to be privatized or drastically reduced in its size or capacity. As a result, Lee said its mounting costs means that the government will be forced to look to cut spending in other areas, such as education.
“Whether it’s in 2010 or in the near future, the pressure is going to become greater and greater for the government of Ontario to deregulate university tuition fees, or to allow significant increases as they say to the universities, ‘You’re on your own, get your money from the students; we’ve got to feed the beast called healthcare,’” Lee said. However, it’s not all “doom and gloom” for Carleton. Lee said that Carleton is well-positioned compared to other Canadian universities to withstand government cuts to universities as a result of Carleton’s cautious leadership and prudence in budgeting.
“Carleton’s in strong shape,” Lee said. “Canada as a whole went into the recession much later than other nations, came out of it sooner, and didn’t experience it as deeply as others,” said Lee, who added that 2010 will in fact be a much better year than 2009 for Carleton graduates searching for employment. “I’ve never felt more confident in [Carleton’s] relationship with where it fits in the larger scheme of things,” Lee said. “Going forward, I’m very confident about our position and reputation in Canada.”