Alberta post-secondary hailed as most unaffordable
Posted Sep 11, 2012 2:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives describes post-secondary education in Alberta as some of the costliest in the nation.
According to “Eduflation and High Cost Learning”, tuition fees in the Wildrose province have steadily increased since 2006.
Frozen with the Consumer Price Index, Alberta will have the fourth highest cost of learning for median income families pursuing university if trends continue.
For low income families the situation is even worse, the province becomes the most unaffordable by a significant margin when you consider Ontario’s 30% tuition rebate.
Canadian Federation of Students’ Jessica McCormick says the results in the report prove what they’ve been saying all along.
“Students studying in provinces like Alberta and Ontario are paying three to four times as much as their counterparts in Newfoundland and Labrador, for the same quality education,” says McCormick.
She’s calling for a national standard, to eliminate any imbalance between the jurisdictions.
“The Alberta government has the ability to make a change, we don’t have to see tuition fees increase to the point where you’re seeing the highest tuition fees in the country,” she adds.
University of Calgary Student Union President Hardave Birk says he’s seen some programs in the last year rise by 20 per cent.
“Over the last three years, the government has cut over 100 Million dollars in things like grants, scholarships and bursaries to students,” says Birk.
While they’ve made promises to reinvest in the future of students, Birk wants the young people to continue to push their elected officials to do more.
“We are lucky to have tuition capped with CPI, so we can have some predictable increases,” he says.
Mount Royal Student Association Vice President of External Affairs Julia Broome says she’s seen some students have to hold down to jobs just to attend classes.
Broome is calling for the institutions, student leaders and the government to sit down and come up with a solution on how to be competitive.
