Brandon U continues provincial trend of highest compulsory fees
CFS says lack of legislation leads to ‘hypocritical’ fee increases
JEANETTE STEWART CUP CENTRAL BUREAU CHIEF
REGINA (CUP) — As compulsory fees in Manitoba increase for the second year in a row, student groups are calling for legislation to ensure that university education remains accessible to students.
Compulsory fees are “labelled something different,” said Amanda Aziz, national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), but amount to an increase in what students pay to go to school. Aziz said that allowing the increase of additional fees while tuition is frozen is a “hypocritical policy.” There is currently no legislation binding the universities to freeze compulsory fees.
Statistics Canada reported Sept. 1 that the largest increase in compulsory fees — fees that students pay in addition to tuition fees — occurred in Manitoba this year.
According to Statistics Canada, compulsory fees in the province increased by 30.2 per cent over the past year, from an average of $353 in 2005-06 to $458 this year.
University administrators in Manitoba say the increases are necessary to sustain services on campus, but the CFS says the increases are a method of “finding a loophole” in the tuition fee freeze.
The student lobby group has drafted legislation that would bind both the tuition freeze and ancillary fees, but the province has been “shy to adopt [it],” said Aziz.
“We haven’t legislated [the freeze] because our premier is very clear that it won’t last forever,” said Diane McGifford, minister of advanced education and training.
McGifford said the law allows institutions to set their own ancillary fee increases, something the government has monitored but not prevented universities from doing.
“We could change all the legislation but our position is that we have a very affordable, accessible education system,” said McGifford. “We have spoken to the universities and let them know that any increases have to be reasonable and justifiable.
Scott Lamond, Brandon University’s vicepresident of administration and finance, said that while there is “no question” the universities have had to live with the government-implemented tuition freeze, the increases in additional fees have been done with “the knowledge and assistance of the province.”
CFS Manitoba chair Stacey Senkbeil said that while the provincial government provided more assistance this year, universities continue to raise fees.
“Last year . . . all the schools proposed between $450 to $465 increases,” said Senkbeil. “The government came in and said you can’t increase fees this much.”
In response, the Manitoba government increased their funding to the institutions, amounting to an increase “higher than any other funding increase to a social program in Manitoba,” said Senkbeil.
However, Lamond says that the cost of operating a university continues to rise and that in order to stay competitive with universities across Canada, funds must come from somewhere.
“The government is doing its best to continue to increase funding, but wasn’t in position to replace what would have otherwise been increases in tuition,” said Lamond. “There comes a point at which there comes no choice.”
Lamond said that the increases made at Brandon University are “cost-recovery fees,” the majority of which will update campus technology.
“When we talk to students, we put in front of them [that either] we have to cut services or put a modest fee increase . . . most students come back and say we’d rather have a modest increase,” said Lamond.
Senkbeil said the problem the CFS has with the increases, however modest, is that “by letting these fees slip through it is a direct hit to the tuition fee freeze and [it] is going to hurt it in the long run.”
