Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is in 7 Days!
Only one more week to go before a 1/2 million students (at least) walk out to tell the government and post-secondary institutions that we want a reduction in tuition and increased accessibility to post-secondary education.
After four years of deregulated increases, students forced the BC Government to re-regulate tuition fees in 2005-2006 after submitting more than 38,000 signatures to the Legislature calling for tuition fee reductions and a reinstatement of funding. The decision to prohibit any institution from increasing fees beyond the rate of inflation (2%) annually represented an about-face from the government's previous rigid policy of unfettered increases ad marked a major victory for students.
However, the tuition fee increase policy did nothing to reduce the cost of a post-secondary education, and ensures that post-secondary education will remain out of reach for many potential students and their families. Today, tuition and ancillary fees are the most significant barrier to acquiring a post-secondary education. In BC, the average university student pays nearly $5,000 in tuiton and ancillary fees, while college, university-college and institute students pay an average of $3,400.
The Canadian Federation of Students has worked to develop widespread support on issues of affordability, with public opinion polling showing that the vast majority of British Columbians believe that tuition and ancillary fees are too high.
On February 7th, students in BC are demanding that the government go the next step in ensuring an affordable post-secondary education system and a prosperous future for all British Columbians by:
- reducing tuition fees by 10% in 2007-2008
- increasing funding for all post-secondary education institutions
- making adult basic educatoin tuition fee free
- reinstating student grants for those in need, including graduate students
- increasing funding for trades and apprenticeship students
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