Thousands of college and university students across Canada circled Feb. 7 on their calendars as the official day of protest of rising tuition fees. The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), an alliance of more than 80 student unions, organized rallies on campuses and marches on provincial legislatures. Its message: students aren’t cash cows.
“We’re really in the hole thanks to the federal government’s de-prioritization of post-secondary education spending,” said Jesse Greener, the federation's Ontario chair.
The CFS is calling for an added $4 billion each year from the federal government and a national post-secondary Act in Parliament to make sure there was some accountability that the money was going into post-secondary education. The private member’s bill has survived first reading in the House of Commons.
Rallies were being held Feb. 7 in about 30 urban centres, including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa. Students who arrived for their fall semester last year were greeted by a shocking tuition freeze cancellation and an announcement from the feds that education fees were to rise between 20 and 36 per cent over four years on top of current fees.
“I think it's outrageous, because these are public universities,” fumed 23-year-old Alan Lau, a recent graduate of the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Economics. “If it was a private university, they can jack it up all they want. It's unfair, especially for the universities that rarely give out scholarships.”
Ontario’s fees are currently the third-highest in the nation, with the average university year totaling $5,200 and college at $2,300. In Quebec, tuition fees are free. Tuition fees range widely across the country, with Nova Scotia having the highest fees of any province, according to Statistics Canada.
Many students apply for a loan from the Ontario Student Assistance Plan (OSAP) to finance their tuition. But the problem is that the maximum amount one can get is $11,900, depending on parental income and other personal factors. What if your parents made enough money to afford your tuition but still want you to tough it out? “Parents who are financially well-off but still refuse to contribute to their child’s studies may disadvantage their child, as student financial assistance from OSAP, if any, would have taken into account the expected parental contribution,” explained Tanya Blazina, spokesperson for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
The number of OSAP loan requests has increased over the past two years jumping from 208,482 to 219,582. But so have the OSAP grants. So how much debt can a student expect? According to the CFS, just through student loans such as OSAP graduates can expect to be $20,000 in the hole for a four-year degree. And that doesn’t include private debt from credit cards, lines of credit, and the Bank of Mom and Dad, which may be another $10,000. Student debt in Canada is estimated at $20 billion across the country and is increasing by about $1.5 million per day.
“Students understand that it’s far from living life at its fullest and really about cutting costs at every corner,” said Greener. “Unfortunately, for many students, that has become an issue of malnourishment while they’re studying or burn the candle at both ends if working while in school. About half in the system have at least one part-time job and work on average 22 hours a week.”
This is the case for Jalah Shahin, a third-year biology and psychology student at McMaster University in Hamilton, who also doubles as a psychology teaching assistant (TA). Between teaching and school, she usually puts in 13 hours each day. The 21-year-old can pay some of her bills with her teaching job, but she makes $450 maximum a month while her ballooning bills are close to $7,000 a year for residence and a meal plan. She’s had to take out an OSAP loan, and is already $30,000 in debt, with more to come.
It’s an overwhelming position for her to be in, she said, because employers always look for extracurricular activities and volunteering on top of good grades. Being able to make ends meet is tough enough. “That’s why students feel so pressured,” she explained. “There’s no way I can pay back half the loan when I’m stuck with a science degree. That won’t be able to get me a high-paying job right away.”
Shahin recommends saving as much money as possible from a summer job and cutting costs by living at home, if that’s an option. But otherwise, debt is what usually comes with college and university life. The real danger, said Greener, continues to be high school students who choose to skip out on the post-secondary education and go straight into a low-paying job. “People will say why they’d forego getting an income after high school just to put themselves in massive amounts of debt by going through post-secondary,” he added. “It’s a double-negative for young adults.”
Resources:
• Ontario Student Assistance Plan - http://osap.gov.on.ca
• Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario branch - (416) 925-3825
Jenny Yuen is One80's Special Edition Reporter for the April edition on employment. She is a Toronto-based freelance news writer for NOW Magazine, Ontario Restaurant News, and BlogTO.
