The travels of Justin

As a student, it’s hard to avoid hearing the enless complaints about the rising cost of tuition. Our school newpaper regularly features the topic, as one might expect, while mainstream media continues to report complaints from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and their respective member organizations. While the CFS would like to have tution paid entirely by the government (witness the slogan: “Education is a right”) I’m often stuck by the nature of their lament.

In BC, the average tution is roughly $4,137 per year, on top of living expenses, etc. For a typical four year program, that is only $16,548 (source: CFS report) — that’s less than the typical price of a new car. A few weeks ago, when I saw labour leader Jim Sinclair get a bunch of locals (almost none of them students) upset about the “insane level of student debt” [pharaphasing]. When I graduate in 3.5 years or so, I can anticipate having little excitement to pay off my debt, but at least my investment won’t depreciate when I leave the classroom the way a car does when you drive it off the lot.

Today, the Globe and Mail is reporting that “[r]ising tuition fees have not closed the door of university classrooms to poorer Canadians, though they have put students waist-deep in debt.” Meanwhile, the CFS is spinning the same report as proof that rising tuition costs are the cause of lower university participation by lower income families. Is it fair to ask if lower income families are not participating for reasons other than cost? While the tuition may be rising, student loans make school affordable; it’s not a glamourous lifestyle, but it can be done. If education was provided gratis, would participation really increase? Would students value their ‘free’ education and participate as competitively as when their future hard-earned money is on the line? While the rapid rise in tuition isn’t a topic that should be ignored, perhaps it shouldn’t be as much as a concern as it seems to be.

Now, with the BC provincial budget just anounced, Groups like the CFS are taking credit for pressuring the BC Liberals to hold tuition increases to the rate of inflation. Even yesterday’s Vancouver Province newspaper reported the increased spending in many social areas are an appeal to would-be NDP supporters; they say it like that’s a bad thing! Maybe a few of those who are ‘angry’ that the BC Liberals would ‘appeal to voters’ have forgotten how democracy works. The news for BC tution rates is much smarter than the tuition freeze imposed by the NDP and shows some original thinking.

I may not be decided who I’ll cast my vote for in three months, but you can be sure that there will be at least one student not demanding lower tuition rates.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2005 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Thompson Rivers University (汤普森河大学). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.