According to a StatsCan study of 2,000 students, only 16 per cent of young people from poor families attend university, compared to 40 per cent from wealthy families.
What’s interesting to note, however, is that these numbers are not a big change from surveys conducted when tuition was lower. 1986 and 1994 surveys saw 14 per cent and 18 per cent respectively of young people from poor families attend university.
All of this is both a godsend and a curse for those arguing against our university and others like Queen’s who wish to further increase tuition—even seeking the power to do so in undergraduate programs that have traditionally been protected against unchecked increases. On one hand, the numbers make it painfully clear that people who by simple twist of fate end up being born to poor families end up not going to university. On the other hand, though, the massive increases in tuition over the last decade and a half seem not to have made that much of an impact.
Certainly free rein to jack up tuition isn’t going to help more students attend university. True, it will increase debtloads even more, but it will only make university marginally more inaccessible. According to the numbers, inaccessibility has already happened.
It is interesting this is not a scandal. If the wealthy were a whopping two and a half-times more likely to receive access to another public service—medicare, for instance—it would be outrageous. And while engaging in a proper debate over deregulation is vital—especially given that 91 per cent of Queen’s students opposed it in a referendum—what is also needed is to really come up with a plan to tackle this larger issue.
On February 6, students across the country march for accessible education as part of the Canadian Federation of Students’ day of action. While it may be pie in the sky dreaming, this paper, at least, would like to think that event could be a call for pause, and perhaps a chance for some agreement across political lines.
People of most political stripes agree that everyone has a right to self-improvement, and while they may disagree on how much of the cost for that they bear, we should realize that they all at least have a right to get their foot in the door. A decade and a half of very respected surveys show this clearly is not happening in post secondary education.
Perhaps in light of this we can see demands for federal needs-based grants (which most other countries have) not as a lefty cause, but a simple way to ensure everyone has an equal right to self-improvement. This is certainly not presently the case, and until it is, our biggest concern as students should be for those who—often by fluke of birth—ended up without many of the opportunities we have. Instead of any political infighting, let’s all agree to do something to help them. Low-income Canadians should not have to face another 15 years of being denied access.
Got a campus event planned?
Starting Monday, and continuing, well, hopefully forever, the Varsity will be featuring an events listings page. There are dozens of events happening on campus weekly, but we don’t know when or where, and chances are, neither do you.
We need to fix that. If you are organizing any sort of event on campus—whether it be a film screening, a play, a speech, or a re-creation of the civil war using chimpanzees—we need to know about it. Email a short description, including place and time and a few sentences describing the event to [email protected]. We’ll take care of the rest.
Extracurricular activity, especially on a campus this size, is one of the gems of a university education. But with the competition for bulletin board space bordering on mercenary, and with no one having enough time to do a hundred class speaks, you need a quick way to know what is happening and when. Help us make our events page become just that. Email today!
