A recent report from Stats Canada says tuition fees have risen by an average of 2.8 per cent…
The Executive Director of the New Brunswick Student Alliance Rob Burroughs says this comes as no surprise, “We expected this when the budgets came out this year, and the new tuition schedules were released, It doesn’t surprise me because operating grants have been effectively frozen after calculating inflation for the past 21 years or so. Tuition fees are likely to go up with inflation every year because that is what we have seen every year with this 2 per cent cap. In order to effectively fund the post secondary sector, we have to see an equal if not greater increase in the operating grant, and that’s what we are asking the government for.”
Burroughs says one of his concerns is the fact that New Brunswick has the second highest tuition rates in the country.
He believes attracting New Brunswickers to attend our universities shouldn’t be an major issue because of the tuition access bursary plan, but there is nothing being offered to students from outside the province and the high tuition fees will deter them from coming.
“In the economic growth plan that the government just published, they have a specific action item in there that says they want to attract other province students to come to New Brunswick. Right now, we do not have a competitive post secondary sector based on cost and tuition fees,” he adds.
