Posts tagged with tuition.

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) |

Anti-Project Hero profs were right to speak out

Joey Coleman, March 26, 2010 at 1:01 PM

 

Sixteen obscure professors at one of Canada's smaller universities have publicly stated their belief that Project Hero, an initiative in which post-secondary institutions grant tuition-free education to children of deceased soldiers, is "a glorification of Canadian imperialism in Afghanistan and elsewhere" and that the University of Regina should immediately withdraw from the program.

 

The howls of outrage to their open letter have been heard across the country.

 

I celebrate the publication of the letter at the same time as I reject its call to action.

 

Member of Parliament Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu'Appelle) stated "Attacking a scholarship for the children of our fallen service men and women is disgusting."

 

Mr. Scheer is wrong. The letter "attacking" the scholarship is not disgusting, nor is the expression of the ideas wrong. The letter is disagreeable but should be celebrated for its value to the democratic ideals of Canada.

 

These professors are engaging in the activity that justifies the existence of the liberal arts faculty in a modern democracy; they are challenging the political status quo by inciting debate about Canada's foreign policy, which they refer to as "imperialism."

 

They are - granted from the comfort of well-paying positions within the ivory tower as members of the intellectual elite - taking an unpopular stand and I commend them for doing so. As someone who served in the reserves for three years, I'm heartened by these professors exercising their democratic right to opine against Project Hero. I personally support Project Hero as an important gesture of appreciation toward of the families of soldiers who died serving the Canadian people in the service of their country as ordered by Parliament.

 

The University of Regina has correctly rejected their demand to cancel Project Hero, but should partially grant their request to hold a public forum on the war in Afghanistan and Canadian imperialism more generally to be held this semester before exams begin.

 

The University of Regina should hold an academic debate - streamed on the Internet - about Canada's foreign policy in Afghanistan this summer and invite assistant professor Jeffery Webber, the de facto spokesperson for the sixteen, to argue his viewpoints against another academics on the other side of the debate.

 

May the best ideas win. 

 

 Cast your vote: Do you think children of fallen soldiers should get free tuition at universities?

Tagged with regina, tuition, free, scholarships, hero, project, dead, soldiers, fallen, children, letter | Comments (57) |

Tuition fee mystery

Joey Coleman, November 27, 2009 at 4:21 PM

There is a mystery surrounding tuition fees in Ontario for 2010/11.

 

The only honest answer university recruiters can give to what tuition fees will be is: "We don't know."

 

This is because the Ontario government's present tuition framework expires at the end of the current academic year and there are no signs the province will be releasing a new one before the late winter/early spring tabling of next year's provincial budget.

 

This leaves parents, who are being encouraged by the government to save for their children's education, unable to create their financial plans for the next academic year.

 

With applications for the 2010 academic year already being submitted, and the earliest offers of admission being made, it would be nice of Ontario's Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities John Milloy to submit his new tuition framework in a timely fashion and let people know the cost of a post-secondary program in Ontario.

Tagged with fee, tuition, ontario, framework | Comments (3) |

Students as cash cows

Joey Coleman, November 25, 2009 at 4:08 PM

 

I was interested in two stories last week, in which students are being seen as easy revenue sources; one by a university, the other by a city. Though these striking situations are American, we are seeing some disturbing trends in Canada, too.

 

The University  of California system, home to some of the world's greatest public universities, is dealing with a $813-million (all figures in USD) cut from state transfer payments. In Pittsburgh, the city is facing a $15-million deficit. Both are looking to students to fill their budget gaps.

 

The University of California system is following the traditional method of deficit plagued universities and raising tuition, but in this case, by a stunning 32 per cent. The tuition hike will increase revenue for the UC system by approximately $505-million in the coming year, and about $175-million of this money will be directed to increased financial assistance for low income students.

 

The remainder of the budget deficit will be filled by cuts to staffing and budgets with many professors seeing their pay cut by 9 to 10 per cent because of mandatory furloughs. Officially, pay for senior administrators within the UC system has been cut by 10 per cent, but many senior administrative positions have actually seen pay increases this year.

 

The tuition increases have resulted in protests by student and labour activists. Links to coverage of the protests can be found at the Student Activism blog maintained by Angus Johnston: http://studentactivism.net/

 

The tuition increases in California have sparked a national debate in the United States regarding tuition policy. The New York Times "Room for Debate Blog" weighed in Monday publishing the opinions of six parties on how American public universities should "balance fiscal responsibility and equal opportunity." The opinions are well worth reading.

 

No surprise to my regular readers, I believe public higher education accessibility policy should focus on targeted aid instead of the present system of blanket subsidies of tuition for all socio-economic backgrounds.

 

The other story is much more interesting from a political standpoint. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, proposed a novel new tax to plug the city's deficit: a 1 per cent sales tax on all tuition payments for students attending post-secondary institutions in the city. The tax, which the mayor expected to raise $16-million in its first year, would have seen students pay between $27 and $403 on top of their tuition.

 

The mayor claimed the tax is justified because post-secondary institutions are exempt from paying property taxes to the city, students use city services, and the city incurs policing costs from student parties. He called it a "fair-share" tax and announced the tax proposal less than a week after winning re-election to another term.

 

Thankfully, after opposition locally and pressure from the both the state government and parties interested in higher education, a state board overseeing the city's budget rejected the idea.

 

But the mayor's idea is unlikely to go away. He wants to introduce it anyway and let the courts decide whether the city can impose this tax.

 

It's a politically brilliant idea. Cost-effective and easy to collect, it would quickly result in new money for city coffers. And, most importantly for politicians, because students tend to not vote, it is unlikely to harm a politician's chance of being re-elected.

 

But it is poor public policy: It targets a specific group without any consideration of the ability of that group to afford the tax and fails to account for students living off-campus, who contribute to the property tax base of the city. It also creates the impression that students are not welcome in Pittsburgh; exactly the wrong message that any city wishing to still be relevant in 10 years should be conveying. 

 

Canada isn't immune to the targeting of students by municipal governments. The City of Oshawa imposed a $250-per-bedroom annual licensing fee against rental housing near the joint campus of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College. The fee, which will soon be implemented following the dismissal of appeals by the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday, is being looked at by other municipalities in Ontario.

 

Students have also been hit harder than the rate of inflation, with average undergraduate tuition fee increases nationally of 3.6%  and an inflation decline of 0.8%, according to Statistics Canada. Graduate students faced an even higher tuition fee increase.

 

As the effects of the recession continue, it will become increasingly likely that students will be asked to pay up with increased tuition and user fees.

 

Students only have ourselves to blame for this: Few of us vote and we're going to keep paying the price until this fact changes.

 

(GlobeCampus Editor: You may also be interested in Joey Coleman's piece on the recession's effects on students)

Tagged with recession, student, fee, tuition | Comments (5) |