Prentice student tuition Flip Flop

[takinghits]

Slick move by the Prentice Government increase student tuition over the Christmas break.

Province grants approval for controversial tuition hikes, up to 56%, starting next fall.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...ting-next-fall

[During the PC leadership campaign, Premier Jim Prentice said he would not support tuition hikes as high as the U of A’s 56 per cent proposal and suggested the province review and simplify market modifiers to make the process more transparent.

“We have to make sure that post-secondary institutions are affordable to our students,” Prentice said in September.]

Keeping up with the Joneses
Why not match their tax rates as well Mr. Prentice

[taco.vidal]

What a bunch of doublespeak "market modifiers" is!

Another part of the plan to make education accessible to the richonly?

[guzzy]

You do realist that oil tanked, right? You also probably know that our economy is tied directly to oil, right? Prentice has also said he needs to find $18 billion to avoid a deficit over the next three years. It's hard to keep promiSes when an unpredicted decrease in oil leaves the province with that large of a deficit.

I understand your frustration but what is he supposed to do. He can't subsidize students when there is no money. The students whose tuitions have risen 56% are probably going to be alright in the end. I am guessing those would be commerce, MBA and medical students ( a lot of them are probably already very fortunate and aren't paying their tuition to begin with). What about the homeless and less fortunate who really suffer?

Everyone needs to buckle down and try to weather the ride for the next few years.

[Ducay]

I get that tuition increases are a major pain as a student; I've been there and it sucks.

But people/students so often just assume politicians are approving these increases (always proposed by the University) to simply spite or squeeze out students.

The last thing an AB politician would want is to do is decrease our supply of well trained, employable students. We're a highly developed economy and need people like that, not factory workers anymore.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I get that tuition increases are a major pain as a student; I've been there and it sucks.

But people/students so often just assume politicians are approving these increases (always proposed by the University) to simply spite or squeeze out students.

The last thing an AB politician would want is to do is decrease our supply of well trained, employable students. We're a highly developed economy and need people like that, not factory workers anymore.

You're right, so why are they doing it?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Ducay

The last thing an AB politician would want is to do is decrease our supply of well trained, employable students. We're a highly developed economy and need people like that, not factory workers anymore.

Originally Posted by MattyC

You're right, so why are they doing it?

Who needs employable students when you can just import foreign workers for cheap?

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by MattyC

You're right, so why are they doing it?

To balance budgets. Both on the University's side, and on the province's side. Costs go up, and there is nothing they can really do. This isn't USofA with private schools making monsterous profits off $100k+ undergrads.

The Uni's have increased costs and requested to pass that cost onto the students. The gov't (who has no money to cover these increases for them) approves their increase in tuition.

In a perfect world, AB gov't would be flush with cash and could subsidize further (ala Quebec), but unless you want a sales tax to balance the budget, it isn't happening.

[FlamesAddiction]

Those are pretty big hikes to have all at once. For some, it could be the difference between getting an education and not. I don't know where some people get the idea that all university students come from wealthy backgrounds. I had to scrape and claw my way through financially with no support from family (and almost 10 years after graduating, am still paying it off). I do fee sorry for a lot of the students that are going to get screwed because of this.

Having said that, from what I read, Canadian students do not pay the full cost of school and maybe a correction is due. It's a big pill to swallow for students just starting out now though. I am glad that I missed it.

A little OT, but I do have to say that if I could go back and do it again, I probably wouldn't go the university route anyway.

[bizaro86]

If the justification for subsidizing is that we need people with employable skills, why are we only increasing costs for degrees where students end up with employable skills, and leaving the tuition for the less employable degrees the same?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Ducay

In a perfect world, AB gov't would be flush with cash and could subsidize further (ala Quebec), but unless you want a sales tax to balance the budget, it isn't happening.

Wasn't it just a year or two ago when students in that province screamed and whined about some increases to the cheapest tuition in the entire country? They had protests about how everything shouldn't just be cheap, it should be free.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Interesting quote from the article:

“It sends the signal that this is a tool that the government seems to be willing to open up for post-secondary schools to use when their tuition levels are not at an adequate level.”

This is from the executive director for the Council of Alberta University Students.
It seems like a very odd comment.
On one hand she is arguing against giving universities an avenue for increasing their tuition, but at the same time she is conceding that tuition levels aren't adequate.
So if tuition isn't adequate for the school to balance their budget, how else are they supposed to do it if not with tuition increases?
There are two ways to balance the budget, increase revenue, or decrease spending.
As much as it sucks for the students, I'd much rather see the schools increase tuition than have to make cuts which would likely affect the quality of the program.

Certainly more government funding would be preferable to this, but there should be some cost to students as well.

[chemgear]

Large image but with good numbers about this topic:

Spoiler!

[Old Yeller]

I work at a post secondary institution in Calgary. Some of you may not be aware, but student tuition accounts for only about a third of the total revenue of our institution... annual government operating grants are what most institutions in Alberta rely on, and small amounts of funding come from private donors.

Two years ago our university was hoping for around a 2% increase in our grant to keep up with salaries/inflation/other costs... instead the Alberta government cut our grant by almost 8% and we went through significant program and staffing cuts. As always some fat needed to be trimmed, but even with this "tuition increase", which is more of a fee differential modifier for more popular/in demand courses, our institution is still facing multi-million dollar deficits over the next 3 years.

If our grant (and all other post secondary institutes in Alberta) is cut again in the next budget, which we're all expecting, we may have to cut more programs and significant staff... some smaller institutions in Alberta are in even more financial trouble and may disappear altogether.

Hate on the government all you want for not keeping it's promises, but in this case it's much more a funding issue.

[Mr.Coffee]

Old Yeller, are there any other funding alternatives for Universities? Do they have investments, other businesses or services, or federal / municipal grants as well?

[V]

Yeah, universities got hammered a couple years ago when oil was looking great and the government cut a significant amount of funding. Tuition increases are only the next logical step as the government won't pay for it. With oil the way it is I can see another cut to the funding, and then when oil rebounds you'll see another major increase in tuition. The government is deciding that students should pay for more and more of the university's costs, good oil or not.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Large image but with good numbers about this topic:

I'm surprised that dentistry costs more than any other program. I get that having good teeth is important, but how can the dental program cost more than medicine, pharmacy, or other areas that focus on way more than just 1 or 2 parts of the body?

[ExiledFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

I'm surprised that dentistry costs more than any other program. I get that having good teeth is important, but how can the dental program cost more than medicine, pharmacy, or other areas that focus on way more than just 1 or 2 parts of the body?

Dentists make a killing. Way more than pharmacists. And physicians have to spend years slugging away as residents before they start making good money.

If I remember correctly, as a group dentists are the highest earning profession.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by ExiledFlamesFan

If I remember correctly, as a group dentists are the highest earning profession.

They are the most unhappy as well, if I'm not mistaken. I believe they have the highest suicide rates.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by V

Yeah, universities got hammered a couple years ago when oil was looking great and the government cut a significant amount of funding. Tuition increases are only the next logical step as the government won't pay for it. With oil the way it is I can see another cut to the funding, and then when oil rebounds you'll see another major increase in tuition. The government is deciding that students should pay for more and more of the university's costs, good oil or not.

Which is an absolutely backwards approach.

This is a tax by any other name. Except, because students don't make money, it's actually an appropriation of federal dollars by the province in the form of student loans.

Instead of raising taxes and receiving the corresponding revenue to help finance post secondary education, the province is sluffing off that responsibility by increasing the debt burden onto student citizens. It has the optics of keeping the budget down at the cost of unfairly burdening what should be the emerging class of higher income earners, and taking federal dollars to do it. But, it has the nice effect of not appearing on the provincial budget ledger.

This is a federal transfer payment to Alberta.

It's a disgusting display of financial deceit by a corrupt and now financially as well as morally bankrupt ideology.

[Old Yeller]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Old Yeller, are there any other funding alternatives for Universities? Do they have investments, other businesses or services, or federal / municipal grants as well?

We don't receive any municipal grants, or direct federal grants.

Many institutions have investments, some much more substantial than others... but most institutes have used that as a war chest in lean times in order not to run a deficit. As you can imagine, there's only so much water you can squeeze from a stone after a while.

We also have a large "non-credit" (non degree granting) programs that generate revenues. We rent out conference space, sell gym memberships and run a lot of recreation programs (fitness classes) that are all available to the public at a pretty reasonable price. International student fees are also significantly higher but unless you're a McGill/Queens/Western/etc it's not a substantial revenue stream.

All of this helps, but we're really at the mercy of the provincial government.

Lukaszuk really screwed us a few years ago... there was something like $150 to 175 million in cuts to Alberta post secondary education last budget. Every institution had to make decisions on programs and course offerings as a result. The province then miraculously "found" $50 million late in the year that they gave back and spun as "additional funding". Unfortunately this was after all these cuts had been made, Combine that with the fact that every university that I know of operates as the fall being their major intake semester and that "refund" was literally too little, too late.

It's "funny", we have the space to easily handle 25% more full time students than we currently are funded for. 5 to 10 years down the road there's going to be significantly more Alberta students who have to go outside the province if they want a post-secondary education. Maybe that's not a huge issue to some, but it's significantly more expensive to students/parents that would like a local option.