Advertisement 1

Province pumps the brakes on U of C tuition increase plans, citing inadequate student consultation

Alberta's minister of advanced education requested the university resubmit its proposal for the tuition hikes and conduct further student consultation by Oct. 29

Article content

The University of Calgary Students’ Union is praising the provincial government’s decision to delay the university’s proposed tuition hike, with both organizations saying student consultation was insufficient.

Alberta’s minister of advanced education, Demetrios Nicolaides, requested the university resubmit its proposal for the tuition hikes and conduct further student consultation by Oct. 29.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

According to the province’s tuition regulations, an institution’s average tuition and apprenticeship fee increases cannot increase by more than seven per cent each year for the next three years and cannot increase more than 10 per cent for a single program each year.

Article content

For “exceptional” increases over those thresholds, approval is required by the minister.

The students’ union said the university’s proposed increases could see some students paying as much as 30 per cent more for undergraduate programs in engineering and medicine by fall 2022.

The union agrees with the province’s decision, adding they’d warned the university that consultation was inadequate before the board approved the hike. Union president Nicole Schmidt said one of the biggest concerns was the consultation period.

“The main problem here is that students were only told about the exceptional tuition increase proposals in mid-May … two weeks after classes ended and students left for summer break,” she said. “The university is given a 10-month window where they’re required to consult and then submit these increases to the province and students only saw the details with six weeks left in this 10-month window.”

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

This limited the university’s ability to get adequate feedback or properly represent the findings in the submitted proposal, Schmidt said.

“We didn’t feel that the university was consulting with students to the depth that they needed to and they weren’t taking students considerations into account, any of the student recommendations that had been brought up, and they also weren’t being overly transparent with a lot of the information that was supposedly going into these proposals but wasn’t being shared with students.”

The minister’s office said a final decision will be made only after revised proposals are submitted.

“After reviewing the exceptional tuition increase proposals for the 2022-2023 academic year, Alberta Advanced Education has returned the proposals to the institutions for further student consultation and revision,” it said in a statement.

Schmidt said the students’ union will be approaching the university with a proposal on how student consultation should look in the future, adding their concerns about the process span further than the current situation.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“We feel that there’s been a lack of student consultation on other issues, so we firmly believe going forward that there must be a minimum standard set for the university to adhere to when it comes to consultation and student feedback,” she said.

In an emailed statement, the U of C said they look forward to speaking with the minister’s office to “hear more about specifics of the submission.”

“While we believe our consultations with students and other stakeholders were robust, we are happy to expand our efforts with the extra time given by Minister Nicolaides,” the statement read.

“The increases would come into effect in the 2022-2023 academic year, and would only apply to new students. Current students and those starting in the upcoming school year would not be affected. With these proposed increases, tuition costs at the University of Calgary would remain below the average of comparable institutions.”

ocondon@postmedia.com

Twitter: @oliviacondon

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers