TORONTO – Affordability in education has become a hot topic in Ontario’s university campuses, as the University of Toronto seeks to raise law school tuition to $22,000 a year, and Queen’s university recently attempted to deregulate undergraduate tuition.
The tuition raise at the U of T law school is part of a five-year plan to increase the faculty’s annual base budget by 40 per cent, so that they can hire and retain more staff, and put money towards student services and programs, including some increased financial aid.
“Increasingly we are operating in a global society and in order to attract the best, we must have a program that meets the highest standards of international excellence,” said Dean Ron Daniels in a late-January statement explaining the plan. “We seek to justify these tuition hikes by demonstrating to students how investment in the future of this program will attract and retain outstanding students and faculty and provide them with a program that is second to none in the world,” he added.
However, student groups at U of T were not convinced by the need for the tuition hike, as demonstrated by U of T’s active participation in the Canadian Federation of Student’s day of action on February 6th.
“We see [this tuition raise] as an unmitigated disaster, it will shut lower and middle income students right out of the school,” said Joel Duff from the CFS.
Although U of T’s law school insists that increased financial aid will be available after the tuition fee raise, Duff is not convinced it will be enough to allow accessibility. “I think it’s ridiculous as a solution, it doesn’t do anything to address “sticker shock.” Any kind of back-end debt relief isn’t going to help with that kind of debt.”
Duff was also concerned that this tuition raise would encourage students to pursue corporate law, as many will have a high debt load to repay after graduating. “You pretty much have to look to Bay Street to pay off your [student loan] debt.” Duff noted that highly trained lawyers are needed for many areas, including the non-profit sector.
Meanwhile, over at Queen’s university, the school’s principal William Leggett is still reeling from an Ontario government decision not to allow the school to deregulate its undergraduate tuition. Currently, universities can only raise tuition to a limit of two percent per year. His reaction to the decision was to announce significant cuts to the university’s operating budget, and that Queen’s would also limit the replacement of teaching staff lost to retirement. “The government has not taken into account the inflationary costs of this university,” said Leggett.
Robyn Hartley, was one of six students who participated in the occupation of Leggett’s office in January to protest the school’s attempt at deregulation. She was satisfied with government’s decision but commented that Leggett “threw a tantrum” after the government turned down his proposal, resulting in the budget cuts, and loss of teaching staff. “He wants to force it through any way he can…he wants to make it seem like deregulation is the only solution,” she said.
The CFS sees the Ontario government’s decision in the Queen’s case a success to build on. “We regard it as a victory, obviously. Students all around Ontario are happy about the decision,” said Rick Telfer, National Executive Representative for CFS. “However, it doesn’t mean we’re not going to push for our other demands: tuition fee reductions in programs that have been deregulated and genuine fully funded tuition freeze in all programs.”
