Posts tagged with 2010.

Why are student groups celebrating Ontario tuition announcement?

Joey Coleman, March 29, 2010 at 12:30 PM

Student groups are celebrating a "victory" in Ontario today as the provincial government announced a continuation of the tuition status quo and unveiled some incremental changes to the provincial student loans program.

 

Unless the definition of victory has changed, I don't see why student lobbying organizations are celebrating. Sure, the announcement today only included one cutback - the debt cap for Ontario's neediest students is increasing by $300 per two-term academic year - but it didn't exactly have a lot of substantive benefits for students, either.

 

In the context of the province's record deficit, it is definitely good news that student aid was not cut and the government continues to cap tuition. However, this good news should not be construed as anything more than student lobbying groups holding the line until after the next provincial election.

 

Still, "victory" is not a word I'd use to describe today's announcement. Tuition will continue to increase at more than two times the rate of inflation, and the neediest students are about to carry $300 more in provincial student debt each year. The increase to the maximum amount of provincial student loans is only $320 per academic year - less than the amount tuition has increased since 2005.

 

There are positive changes in this package. The fact that students can now earn more toward their studies without government claw backs has doubled and been indexed to inflation. There are new grants for part-time students, interest relief on loan repayments for the first six months after graduation, repayment assistance for former students with low earnings, and the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) formula is being indexed to inflation for non-tuition educational expense.

 

The battle over the contribution that Ontario's higher education sector will make when the government tackles the deficit has merely been put off until after the 2011 election. If today's announcement is a victory, it is only one battle in a war in which the odds are against the sector.

 

The provincial Liberals have positioned post-secondary education as an 2011 election issues - it's now time to man the barricades.

 

Poll: Does keeping Ontario post-secondary tuition increases at 5% for the next two years help students?

Tagged with student, tuition, ontario, increase, 2010, victory | Comments (13) |

Ontario budget has good news for students

Joey Coleman, March 25, 2010 at 5:46 PM

Ontario's budget will make space for 20,000 new students this September with $310-million in new money for the province's colleges and universities, but all students will be left wondering how much they will pay to attend.   

The much expected "Reaching Higher Two" (the successor to the government's Reaching Higher plan for post-secondary education) that will set the direction of Ontario's higher education sector was not revealed in the budget. This leaves institutions, students, and parents wondering what the price tag of a degree or diploma will be in Canada's largest province.

From what was revealed in the budget, the outlook for higher education and students in the province is good.  At $15,500 per student, the funding for the 20,000 new spaces is significantly higher per student than the average per-student funding of approximately $8,000 at the university level. This provides the necessary funds for institutions to properly invest in the capital and operating expenses necessary to offer a quality education for these students. Overall, the government will spend more than $8.3-billion on higher education in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Controversially, the budget also freezes public sector wages to help the province wrestle with its record deficit. The wage freeze extends to colleges and universities but will not effect current collective agreements or contracts. Post-secondary unions currently negotiating agreements will face this freeze. With memories of the 2008-09 York University CUPE strike still fresh in the province, the increased labour tension should make students at institutions with contract negotiations underway nervous. The flip-side is that the freeze will finally bring spiraling higher education costs under control. The primary driver of above-inflation cost increases in higher education have been rapid wage increases, especially for senior administrators, many of whom have seen six-figure increases in the last decade. 

The budget includes new funds for Ontario Summer Jobs programs, with an additional $39-million being injected this summer to assist employers, especially non-profits, to fund employment for students. This is in addition to the funding added last year and brings the total budget of the program to $96-million - 69 per cent higher than prior to the recession.

There is a glaring omission from the budget - the government has given no indication how much tuition will increase this September. This is very concerning as there are less than five months until tuition payments start becoming due. I called both the Minister's and Ministry communications officers. They stated updated tuition regulations will be revealed "shortly." When pressed, they did not give a timeline. From the conversations, it does not appear the announcement will occur prior to the Easter long weekend. The Ontario Legislature does not sit during the week of April 5-9, 2010, which makes it likely that "Reaching Higher Two" will be unveiled early that week.

No reason was given for the later release of this plan, but having talked to sources within the government and Ministry over the last few weeks, I've been left with the impression that a great deal of thought is being put into ensuring that any increase in tuition is offset with targeted financial aid to prevent a drop in students from under-represented backgrounds. 

If the budget is any indication, parents and students have little cause for concern that tuition will skyrocket as it did during the recession of the 1990s.

What are your reactions to the budget's effects on higher education? Continue the discussion in the comments or on GlobeCampus's or Coleman's Twitter pages, or on the Canadian post-secondary education discussion thread. 

Tagged with ontario, budget, 2010 | Comments (106) |