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Tuition Fees in Canada
A Pan-Canadian Perspective on Paying More and Getting Less

Canadian Federation of Students
Tuition Information, 2007


In the past fifteen years, tuition fees in Canada have grown to become the single largest expense for most university and college students. Rapidly increasing tuition fees have caused post-secondary education to ecome unaffordable for many low and middle-income Canadians. The dramatic tuition fee increases during this perid were the direct result of cuts to public funding for post-secondary education by the federal government and, to a somewhat lesser extent, provincial governments. Public funding currently accounts for an average of approximately 57% of university and college operating funding, down from 82% just two decades ago. This constitutes a rapid re-orientation of Canada's post-secondary education system toward individual user payments, and individual indebtedness.

Historical Overview
Prior to the Second World War, very little public funding was provided to Canada's universities (community colleges had not yet been established). University funding relied almost exclusively on private donation and substantial tuition fees. Many universities' academic programs were tied to denominational churches of the Christian faith, and relied heavily on church funding. Only a small portion of the Canadian population attended university, and the vast majority of students came from Canada's wealthiest families.

Following the war, the federal government made grants to attend university widely available to returning soldiers as part of a veterans re-integraton program. The federal government also began directly funding universities during this time, and continued to do so after most of the veterans had graduated. As well, most provincial governments began providing funding for post-secondary education institutions.

By the mid-1960s, nearly all funding for Canada's universities was provided y the federal and provincial governments. This allowed for tuition fees to be reduced to a token amount. Not surprisingly, post-secondary education enrollment exploded, with Canadians from all backgrounds gaining access to higher education for the first time.

Starting in the mid-to-late 1960s, provincial college systems were established in most provinces. Because of public investment, tuition fees at most colleges were either token or nil. This era represented a time when Canadian governments not only recognised the social and economic value of mass post-secondary education, they also invested public funds to reflect that commitment. For a period at the end of the 1960s, Newfoundland & Labrador abolished tuition fees altogether.

By the early 1970s, most of the discussoins about post-secondary educatoin began to focus on the elimination of tuition fees. In 1976, the Canadian government signed on to the United Nations' Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights promising to gradually introduce free education at all levels.

In the early 1980s, a value shift began to take root in the governments in Canada and most other western countries, as most jurisdictions began cutting funding for public programs. Post-secondary education was an easy target for these funding cuts. Because universities and colleges were funded through a combination of both federal and provincial grants plus user fees, governments were able to cut funding by forcing students and their families to subsidise the difference. For various reasons, this option was not available for governments looking to cut public investment in health-care or primary and secondary education. Between the early 1980s and early 1990s, average tuition fees at Canadian universities more than doubled. Average tuition fees at colleges, excluding those in Quebec, more than tripled.

In 1995, the federal Liberal government announced a further cut of $7 billion in public funding to provincial programs, including post-secondary education, health-care, housing and social assistance. These post-secondary education cuts were directly passed on to students, resulting in the largest tuition fee increases in Canadian history.

As access to university and college became increasingly restricted and students were forced to suffer greater debt loads in order to afford higher education, the Canadian Federation of Students was able to successfully turn the tide in several provinces. BC, followed by Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Saskatchewan responded to pressure from students by introducing tuition fee freezes and increasing provincial funding for post-secondary education. Tuition fees were actually reduced in BC (2001), Manitoba (2000) and Newfoundland and Labrador (2002, 2003 and 2004).

Quebec was unique among the provinces because it never passed the cost of federal funding cuts on to students. Tuition fees in Quebec have been frozen for 35 of the last 40 years and college remains free for Quebec students.

At the beginning of the 1990s, average undergraduate tuition fees in Canada were $1,464. Today, average fees are $4,347 for undergraduate arts and science, an increase approximately 400 times the rate of inflation. Other compulsory fees, commonly referred to as "ancillary fees' have also increased rapidly. Between 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 alone, those fees were increased by 38.6%.


Graduate, Professional & International Students
Masters, PhD, international students, and students in professional programs have faced the steepest increases in tuiton fees. Average fees for medicatl students exceed $10,000 although dentistry students still pay the most at an average of $13,463 per year.

In 2006, graduate student tuition fees increased at twice the rate of those of undergraduate students. Unlike most undergraduate students, graduate students are enrolled year-round, and therefore have to pay tuition fees during the summer months. Thus, not only do graduate students pay higher fees, they also pay them for four months more than undergraduate students on the typical fall and winter academic schedule.

The higher fees for graduate and professional students are often justified by arguing that those with advanced degrees earn more during their lifetimes in the workforce. First, the increased earnings of professional has been notoriously exaggerated by university and college presidents in their campaign for higher fees. In addition, advocates for higher fees also ignore the fact that those who do earn higher incomes as a result of post-secondary education also pay higher income taxes. Finally, the earnings-potential argument for higher fees does not address the up-front impact of sky-high tuition fees on entry to these programs.

Students studying in Canada from other countries probably fare the worst of all, since tuition fee regulation has rarely applied to international students. Tuition fees for these students are typically double those of Canadian students' fees.


What is the Impact of High Fees?
Recent studies reveal the effects of high tuition fees on access to post-secondary educatoin for students from low and middle-income backgrounds. Statistics Canada reports that students from low-income families are less than half as likely to participate in university than those from high-income families.

Statistics Canada's Youth in Transition Survey tallied the reasons cited by high school graduates who did not participate in post-secondary education. By an overwhelming marin, the most frequently reported barrier to university and college for these students was "financial reasons"

A study conducted at the University of Western Ontario demonstrated that following the deregulation of graduate and professoinal user fees in Ontario, the participation rates of low-income families in those programs were reduced by one-half.

These results have been replicated by studies in the United States. Researchers at the University of California, LA found that for every $1,000 increase in tuition fees, enrolment rates dropped by 15%. The study demonstraed that the decrease in enrolment was composed "almost exclusively from minority and low-income students"

The Canadian Association of University Teachers recently analysed the long-term trend of tuition fees as a proportion of after-tax family income in Canada. They found that the burden of rising tuition fees has weighed far more heavily on the budgets of the poorest Canadians.

Conclusion
Post-seocndary education is a necessity for both individuals and Canadian society at large. The benefits of higher education and skills trainign range from better employment and a healthier lifestyle, to a better standard of living and greater life statisfaction. Higher average educational attainment across a society is correlated with reduced crime and greater civic engagement. By increasing the financial barriers to post-secondary education, policy maers are taking great risks with the future prosperity of Canadians.

The proponents of higher tuition fees in the countries described above have campaigned on the notion that the overall level of funding resultingfrom higher tuition fees will lead to better quality education. The lesson from other western countries has been that higher tuition fees are consistently offset by cuts in public funding, reduced access to higher education, massive student debt burdens, and no quality improvements. There is a lesson to be learned from these experiences for Canadian policy makers.