There’s an article out today, stating that SFU is about to raise their fees again. Starting next year, they will be one of the highest priced post-secondary institutions in the country. I guess since BC (specifically Vancouver) has one of the highest costs of living in the country, why not tack that on as well.
I just graduated (BA Communication) from SFU in June 2003, and I’ll be paying for that privelege for the next 15 years of my life, if I follow my amortization plan. And I’m one of the lucky ones. Others have double that and more to pay back after their degree programs.
The first SFU fee hike (as fully admitted by the administrators) had no direct benefit to the students. They used the extra cash to improve systems used by clerks and administrators (they all have new iMacs – the flatscreen ones) to make the institution function more smoothly. That was the only change visible to me – I’m not sure what other systems/structural improvements were made out of those funds.
I wonder what the funds from this next fee-hike will bring?
Globally, Canada’s tuition rates are fairly middle-of-the-road. They’re far from free, but one look at the rates in the USA, they’re a small drop in the bucket. We’ve also got one of the higest per-capita rates of post-secondary educated population in the first world. According to Immigration Lawyers Mamman & Associates,
Relative to many European countries, Canada puts greater financial emphasis on post-secondary education. About one-third of public education dollars is directed toward its universities and community colleges. Full-time university enrolment grew by almost 40 percent over the 1980s, and in colleges by 24 percent. In 1993/94, enrolment at these institutions totaled 950,000. Despite this rapid growth, expenditure per student has also risen markedly. In 1993/94, it was, at $19,000 per student, 43 percent higher than in 1982/83.
Granted, that’s a bit outdated now, but it still shows a general trend.
Another thing that surprised me was the utter disdain for college & trade school training that peppered the comments after the article. People complaining that they can’t afford University, so they’ll have to go to a “lesser” institution, and ultimately be less successful. Well I can’t speak for everyone, but I am a University Graduate, and I make less than $30,000/year. I’m not going to be paying off my cumbersome loan any time soon with that kind of salary. Whereas someone who goes to BCIT will pay an average of $10,000 for their program, and come out into a career field where their starting wage will likely be 50% more than what I’m making right now.
I strongly believe in the value of education for its own sake, and it’s unlikely that anyone will become an English professor, Anthropologist, or Doctor with a community college or trade school education. But if careers like these are not in your future, do you really *need* a University education?
Remeber, not being enrolled in a University will not prevent you from reading Fouccault, or compiling a collection of poetry by 18th centry Russian Czars if that’s what you really want to do. All it takes is a little initiative to find resources and like-minded people to share your ideas with. Granted a University makes that process a tad easier, but it’s not impossible without the almighty student card.
Your thoughts on all of this?
I am a mature student struggling to pay tuition and feed myself. I am not looking for a handout, but I also don’t think University should be for a priviledged few. If the government starts weeding out less affluent students, they will find themselves a few years down the road, having to impose more social welfare programs in order to support the growing number of uneducated citizens, unable to find jobs! I thought running a country meant planning ahead and investing in future generations! If tution continues to rise, I’ll have to spend more time working to afford it, and less time studying. All I ask is a chance to succeed!
University should be free and tax-payer funded.
Yep.
Tuition increases are simply not right.
Why? Why not.
An education _is_ a good thing in and of itself, be it in history or even something wacky like “cultural studies”. An education as an intrinsically good thing should not be something open only to those with the funds to pay for it. Nope. Everyone.
Learning things is fuuun. People who want to learn in the organized or structued environment that a university provides should be able to!
ALL ELSE IS HERESY
Helo canadian friend, how are you ?
My name is Evander, i’m brazilian. I have a blog too and i am journalist. Of here there 5 years, more or less, i desire live in Canada for to study english. Hence, i need to make canadians friends. In the future you can help me something. Off course anything if you to need of me, i help you too. If you desire go to Brazil, for exemple, will stay here for accept you. Please: don’t write jargons and don’t omit words because i don’t speak english.
A big embrace
Evandro
I think University is expensive, but it could be worse. While I was at UBC there was a large fee hike that affected everyone (some more than others), but I think it was totally warranted. A 7-year tuition freeze is good in some ways, but really bad in others. I’d love to see free post-secondary education, but I don’t think our economy could support it. (Not with unionized workers running the institutions – but that’s another rant for another day.)
I’m deeply troubled by the disdain for non-University post-secondary education in our society. Some parents send their kids to University to help them find out what they want to do with their lives. Baaad, baaad idea, as far as I’m concerned. They should volunteer, take some college/trades/certification courses, and work a couple of different jobs to feel out the workforce a bit first. One of the things that annoyed me the most at University were the students who I heard talking about the only reason they were there was because their parents wanted them to be. “Oh, I’m just getting my psych degree because that’s what my parents want.” They’re totally devaluing the Bachelor’s degree. There’s nothing wrong with going to school to become an electrician or a daycare worker. I think jobs like those are a hell of a lot more important than a lot of the white-collar jobs out there. Hell, electricians and similar tradesfolk even get paid more – and so they should. What I’m saying is there shouldn’t be a stigma, like you’re “not smart enough” for society if you don’t go to University.
That said, I have a BSc that I worked hard for 4 years to get, and I’m only making $20k/year, before taxes. I’m paying $200/month in student loan payments (my amortization period is around 10 years, I think) and working at a job that my degree isn’t necessary for. When I went to University I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but experiences along the road made me realize that that chosen career just won’t fit my life plan. So I’m going back to school, and will probably end up getting another bachelor’s degree. Thank goodness what I want to get is in a similar field, and it will likely only take me 2-2.5 years to get it. I wish I had taken a little more time to figure things out before delving into a 4-year program, but I’m pretty happy with the way things have turned out…so far.
Phew that was long. Sorry!
Thank you for sharing such a fresh perspective!! I have been trying to spread this message to no avail, especially to the older school crowd. There are still people out there who firmly believe that a University Degree, no matter what degree, is the major thing you need to get you where you want to go.
My personal observation (and what became my own experience..) is that unless you can really SPECIALIZE and focus on an area that will teach you a *marketable* skill, going to University for anything other than just general personal betterment and education is absolutely useless.
A lot of people do not seem to understand that you do _NOT_ learn job skills at University – UNLESS you are in a specialized program such as the perfect examples you’ve cited – Education, Medicine, etc. A Bachelor of Arts in History is not the skyway to heaven. University is higher education and education is about learning and expanding your mind. It’s about being an informed citizen and making wise choices because you have critical thinking skills – and about being introduced to ideas, perspectives, and information you wouldn’t normally have access to during the run of the mill course of your day to day life.
I went to a University College for one semester and absolutely detested it. I had no focus and no direction. I knew what degree I was interested in (because I liked SOME of the classes associated with it) but I didn’t know what career or job path I would take after that and I hated it. (My goal was and still is to be career oriented wrt my education). It seemed pointless and it was. Out of my 5 classes, 3 of them were spectacular but I didn’t take what I really should have out of them because I really had no purpose. I wasn’t interested in learning for the sake of learning.
Now I’ve found myself in a position that could very well turn into my dream job (it’s already very close)(and yes, it’s just a job, not a career..), I make VERY good money and I’m extremely happy and still very uneducated. I’m determined that once I find the right path and I can say “Yes! That’s what I want to do with my life!” that I will jump at the first chance I have to enroll in a trade school and finally get that diploma I’ve always wanted and start my CAREER. But until then, I am wasting my own time by futzing around taking up a seat in a class that someone else could have more use for, just because mommy and daddy think it’s right.
Until then, I’ll hit the library by myself when the urge strikes and there’s something I want to know! 🙂
also, it’s especially tough when in this day it’s almost becoming a minimum to have a university degree. and of course, that is no guarantee that you won’t still be trapped in a crap job.
I am at one of the cheapest school in Canada and it still seems terribly expensive to me. Right now it’s a “University College” but there’s a big project on the go to get it officially named as a University. This worries me in that it might bring more fee hikes, and we’ve already had a few. I’m really blessed in that someone (I don’t know who) decided they liked me enough to pay my tuition and books, but still, the cost of living while in school and not working…ack.
I think we should go the way of europe. they pay for you to go to school there, they pay all tution, as long as you maintain your grade point average, it would be so awesome if we did that here, It would let people who can’t afford to go to school but are more then smart enough to do so, go there. But that wont ever happen. I just hope Canada doesn’t get as bad as the states. one of the reasons the states so such a bad place to live is because no one thinks for themselves down there, they just follow the crowd because there level of educations isn’t anywhere near as high as ours in canada is.
i wish i had something more intelligent to say about this, but i don’t. university seems so out of reach for me, and i’m happy with college for now.
I could express a political comment and say something like this is the first step in seperating the classes, but that’s not what is really on my mind.
I think it’s a shame that post secondary education is becoming too expensive. Although I have not attended college or university myself, I honestly believe that post secondary education needs to be used as a means to improve ones self. (Expanding your horizons per say or using your noggin.) It’s a shame that a lot of people don’t find employment in their particular point of study but I feel that’s just part and parcel.
I would absolutely love to go to school. I would jump at it in a heart-beat.