U.S. post-secondary education more affordable than Canada: American study

Adrian Ma
The Cord Weekly
(Wilfrid Laurier University)

WATERLOO, ON. (CUP) — Canadian students are usually under the impression that post-secondary education is more affordable in Canada than in the United States. But a soon-to-be-released report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) is set to state otherwise.

The EPI, a research group based in Washington D.C. and Toronto, asserts that Canadian provinces are falling far behind American states when it comes to the affordability of post-secondary education.

In an analysis of 50 states and 10 provinces, Canada fails to break the top 30.

The report, entitled “Beyond the 49th Parallel: Affordability of University Education,” states that in spite of higher tuition fees, American universities are more affordable because of the increased financial aid that U.S. students receive.

“Tuition is a small percentage of money in education,” said Sean Junor, an analyst at the EPI.

The data, which was collected up until 2001, shows that the average total cost of attendance for a Canadian university student ($8,336 a year) is lower than in the United States, where the average student can expect to shell out over $10,000 a year.

Where the U.S. outperforms is in the amount of grant money and financial assistance available. In 2000-01, the Canadian government spent an average of $955 per student on grant aid, while U.S. students were provided with an average of $1,562 ($1,288 US).

In terms of student loans, the average Canadian student borrower is allocated $4,601. This is eclipsed in the United States, where $19 billion from the U.S. Department of Education translates into $7,248 per borrower.

Junor said that Ontario in particular is a major cause of Canada’s low rank.

“It’s fair to say that the previous decade . . . hasn’t been fair to Ontario students,” said Junor, citing that accelerated tuition costs and stagnant financial aid have hampered post-secondary access, especially for students from low-income families.

Ashlea Crowe, a third-year history and political science student at Laurier, was “shocked” to learn about the findings in the report.

“It’s unfortunate, really, that students in Canada, one of the richest countries in the world, have to go through this,” she said, adding that some of her friends in university have racked up to $70,000 worth of debt.

“I know so many people who are starving because they’re in so much debt,” she said. “Beyond tuition, people have to pay for rent, people have to pay for books . . . there are so many bright individuals out there who are turned off by the cost of university.”

Junor feels that the report is a reflection of the problems of the last decade, and believes that results will be positive if the Canadian government extends tuition grants and OSAP loans in the face of rising tuition.

Pam Frache of the Canadian Federation of Students, however, is skeptical about the findings in the EPI’s report. She calls the EPI’s work, “politically motivated research.”

“It is true that the U.S. has had a national system of grants . . . but that program, and the upfront grant program, has been deteriorating in the last few years,” she said.

She said that organizations like the EPI idealize the American system of higher tuition rates and increased financial assistance, failing to realize that “things aren’t all that rosy.”

Despite high levels of financial assistance, university education in America is not necessarily more affordable.

Susan Dynarski, associate professor of public policy at Harvard University and research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, discovered that 74 per cent of students with top math scores in high school who are in the top quintile of family income go on to earn a BA.

However, only 29 per cent of students with top math scores coming from low-income families do the same.

Dynarski also found that since the ’70s, the adjusted average earnings of a university graduate has remained level, but that student debt has risen immensely — a struggle that Alison Crowe’s friends are also facing.

“The evidence is showing in the U.S. that they’re heading into a real crisis of university access,” said Frache. She remains unconvinced that adopting American-style education funding is the answer to alleviating the financial barriers facing Canadian students.

“We need an upfront grant program, not more student debt.”