[mobglob-discuss] Tieleman on BC Liberal tuition hikes, cuts (fwd)

[Tom_Childs at Douglas.BC.CA]

Forwarded message: On behalf of Bill Tieleman
West Star Communications


Bill Tieleman's Political Connections column in the Georgia Straight

for Sept 19-26, 2002


Tuition Fees Go Up, Access Goes Down

And the quality of education is no better


University.a place where rich men send their sons who have no aptitude 
for business.

-Kin Hubbard, 1923

Welcome, students, to the B.C. Liberal government's back-to-the-future 
world of country-club colleges and universities, where tuition is much
higher but quality is no better and classes are lacking.


The government's hypocritical February decision to deregulate previously
frozen tuition fees-the pre-election Liberals supported a 2001 NDP
government move to reduce tuition by five percent-is predictably
reducing access to postsecondary education for lower-income students.


But on top of that, the provincial education-funding freeze means that
despite fees jumping from 22 percent at most colleges to a whopping 321
percent for a masters of business administration at the University of
B.C., the quality of education is not improving.


" Students and parents are looking at paying a lot more and getting less
in return, " Summer McFadyen, B.C. chairperson of the Canadian
Federation of Students, told the Georgia Straight. " More programs have
been eliminated this year than in any year I can recall, while tuition
fees are going up. "


It wasn't supposed to work out this way. Like a lot of Liberal plans,
the results are less impressive than the promises.


" Clearly, most students would have liked to maintain the freeze
forever. But that's not realistic, " Advanced Education Minister Shirley
Bond said on February 11 when the government deregulated tuition,
letting each institution set fees. " Among the concerns we heard were
decreased student access, increased waiting lists, and reduced course
availability. "

Since then, tuition has gone up dramatically, but those concerns are
still being heard.

The deregulation of tuition fees, as well as the lack of government 
funding for colleges, may well be responsible for students experiencing
problems finding available courses in community colleges. With
university fees already considerably higher than those of community
colleges and other postsecondary institutions and rising even more, many
students have likely decided to avoid B.C. universities for their first
two years of study.

Langara College has experienced perhaps the worst of all worlds: higher
tuition fees, more students enrolling, and, despite increased spaces,
more students turned away for lack of courses.

Nancy Wickham, Langara's director of communications and marketing, said
in an interview with the Straight that as of September 11, the college
has 442 more students enrolled and has in-creased the number of " active
" seats available in courses by 1,563 over last year.

However, Wickham said that the number of students who tried to enroll at
Langara but were unable to find room in any of the classes they wanted
has more than doubled this year compared to 2001, to 350 students from
145.

The Canadian Federation of Students is concerned that, as important as
the lack of courses is, limiting access to postsecondary education to
those with higher incomes is a bigger problem in the longer term.

" There's no relationship between fees and quality of education, but
there is a relationship between fees and participation of students from
low- and middle-income families, " McFadyen said. She cites a 1999
University of Western Ontario study that found the number of students
from lower-income backgrounds attending medical school dropped by 50
percent when annual tuition fees rose from about $4,000 to more than
$10,000 over four years.

McFadyen said the tuition freeze that began in 1996 helped B.C. turn
around its postsecondary-education participation rate from the
second-worst in Canada to the fourth-best in just a few years.

" B.C. was leading the way in accessibility to postsecondary education,
but now we've rejoined the race to the bottom. B.C. led the way and
other provinces were following: Manitoba and Newfoundland reduced fees,
and Ontario capped fee increases, " she said.

The president of the union representing most college instructors agrees.
" Rising tuition fees and reduced student grants will be hard on the
most vulnerable students, " said Cindy Oliver, of the College Institute
Educators' Association. " We see them struggling now to make ends meet,
combining jobs and studying, and we are very concerned about what the
future holds for them. "

While tuition is free or very low in Ireland, Germany, France, Britain,
and most of Scandinavia, B.C. is heading in the opposite direction,
toward less accessibility to education just when our economy needs more
educated employees.

Author John Ralston Saul summed up the problem well in a speech given at
Simon Fraser University, where he received an honorary degree in October
2000.

" Wherever tuition goes down, enrollment goes up. And where does the
increase in students come from? From those with less money, " Ralston
Saul said. " In other words, the lower the fees, the more egalitarian
the society. The lower the fees, the more we are able to release the
genius of the citizenry as a whole. And that genius, that collective
unconscious, is the key to a successful democracy. "

In May 2002, SFU raised fees an average 30 percent.

West Star Communications president Bill Tieleman has clients in labour,
business, and nonprofits. He is a political commentator Thursdays on CBC
TV's Canada Now and regularly on CBC Radio's Early Edition. E-mail him
at weststar at telus.net.