Canadian Students Fight Tuition Fee Hikes

Thousands of Canadian students and their supporters are expected to protest Tuition fee hikes at a National Day of Action on February 7.

Tuition fees have been a growing concern for Canadian students with more and more students unable to complete post secondary education because of the spiraling costs. Students who are able to get loans are now paying back unprecedented amounts for their education.

The Canadian Federation of Students, as the peak body of students in Universities and Colleges in Canada, has lead a campaign to get the provincial governments to protect the right to education by freezing and reducing the fees. The fragmented nature of post secondary education being split between the provinces has made national campaigning hard for the CFS. The campaign has been most effective in Quebec where tuition fees have been frozen for the last decade and students are actively campaigning to remove all fees.

In Ontario, the largest province by population, the Liberal government has largely passed on these costs to students. Public money now makes up only 57% of tuition costs, down from 82% two decades ago. Significantly, seven of the ten most expensive programs are in Ontario Universities. University of Toronto Law students are paying $17,000 this year while a similar law program at Magill University in Montreal, Quebec cost under $4,000 this year. The “Reaching Higher” introduced by the Ontario Liberals has seen most undergraduate degrees raise their fees by 20% over four years with professional, graduate and post diploma fees up by nearly double that.

The fee rises have in some cases grown significantly since the mid nineties when federal post secondary transfer payments were cut leading to some provinces passing on these costs to students.

The costs have proved to have a toll on access with Statistics Canada for the first time in 1999 seeing a decline in the amount of students with a household income under $60,000 attended post secondary education, since they started recording it in 1965.

To fight the fees university and college campuses collectives have been set up to bring together the widest range of people in order to plan how they can fight back against the law and build the upcoming National day of Action as big as possible.

Groups on campus have been encouraged to organize their own unique events around the issue as well as work on campus wide campaigning to build up momentum towards February 7. Cross town meetings and communication, has been used to exchange ideas between campuses and organize joint actions.

With Tuition fees being an issue that affects all students indiscriminately the campaign has seen new layers of people becoming interested in their student union and its campaigns.

Tuition fees removal is an issue that is not likely to go away for students as long as they continue to exist. In a time when Student Unions strength has been waning in part due to attacks from governments willing to give up the right to an independent voice for students, it is important students are able to stand up and fight back. Through broad, inclusive and committed campaigns on issues like tuition fee removal, the active student movement can grow to once again become an independent, political force able to act as a real catalyst for change.