University of British Columbia students are struggling to understand their university’s plan to increase tuition in the upcoming year.
The proposed increase was announced to students on Jan. 25 and would raise the tuition of domestic students by two per cent. International students’ tuition could be increased by as much as four per cent.
Taylor Dotto, vice president external of the student union at UBC’s Okanagan campus, expressed her dissatisfaction with the administration’s “business-as-usual” attitude toward increasing tuition.
According to Dotto, students are already experiencing lost jobs, financial uncertainty, and negative impacts on their mental health due to the pandemic, and the possibility of a tuition increase worsens these difficulties.
“Pretty much the whole university experience has been turned upside down,” Dotto said. “To then have an additional financial burden placed on students who are already facing hardship and barriers to accessing their education, it’s very frustrating.”
Dotto said many current students are struggling financially and this concern extends to future UBC students.
“UBC’s administration seeks to keep tuition fees as low as possible while maintaining the operations and infrastructure that contribute to UBC consistently ranking as one of the top 20 public universities in the world,” said Matthew Ramsey, UBC’s director of university affairs in a statement to the Charlatan.
Ramsey said the university hopes to prioritize its additional tuition revenue from this year to support financial aid, for important matters negatively impacted by COVID-19 such as the cost of attendance, educational materials, and student support services for online learning.
UBC students have raised concerns about the proposed plan highlighting that even before the pandemic, tuition could be burdensome, and while tuition increases are normal, this school year certainly hasn’t been.
While Ramsey’s statement emphasizes supporting students, “the best way [UBC administration] could positively support students right now would be to not move forward with the increase,” Dotto said.
In the previous academic year, UBC experienced a similar conflict over the cost of tuition between students and administration.
Irem Atalay, third-year UBC commerce undergraduate society representative started a petition in March 2020 advocating for students to receive partial tuition refunds.
The requested refunds would be for services students could no longer access during online school, including on-campus facility fees.
Atalay’s petition has received nearly 9,000 signatures by Feb. 20. Atalay’s request for tuition refunds was ultimately declined by the university.
Facing the proposed tuition increase a year later, Atalay said she believed tuition increases should be smaller than in previous years due to the pandemic, if not completely non-existent this year.
Dotto and Atalay both mentioned the quality of online education as another student concern.
As the upcoming fall semester’s status of whether or not it will take place in-person remains in question, a hike in tuition costs does not correlate with students’ satisfaction level with online school.
Will Chalk, a second-year engineering student at UBC, said he believes the quality of education at the university has declined as classes have moved online.
Chalk was among the almost 8,800 people who signed Atalay’s petition. He said the move to increase tuition amid the pandemic shows UBC’s administrators “don’t really care that much” about students’ financial and mental health concerns.
Chalk said he believes many decisions made by the school haven’t had students’ best interests in mind.
“Their mental health services are abysmal. Trying to see a school-funded counsellor is nearly impossible, despite messaging about how important mental health is,” Chalk said.
As UBC students’ frustrations continue to rise, students are uncertain what to expect amid the tuition increase proposal.
Students will have to wait until April to know whether or not UBC administration will increase next academic year’s tuition fees.
Featured image by Jasmine Foong.
