A study on the effects of higher tuition at U of T’s law school said raising fees does not deter lower-income and minority students and does not push debt-addled graduates into higher-paying corporate law jobs at the expense of lower-paying careers.
The Provost’s Study of Accessibility and Career Choice in the Faculty of Law, conducted by Shirley Neuman, was mandated by U of T’s Governing Council (GC) in November.
GC members were concerned that the Faculty of Law’s “Raising our Sights” plan, which sought to hike tuition and financial aid in order to attract higher-profile faculty and top-flight students, would discourage minority and low-income students from applying. GC members were also concerned that law grads would end up working in large corporate firms to pay off their tuition debt—rather than working for government, smaller firms, or in legal aid.
In 2002-2003, first-year tuition at the Faculty of Law was $14,000. The “Raising our Sights” plan calls for tuition to hit $22,000 by 2006.
The study said so far, “There is no decline in the proportion of students from lower-income backgrounds.” In four years, the study said, there have been no statistically significant changes in the income make-up of the law school.
However, the study acknowledged that about 30 per cent of law school students did not disclose their family income.
The Provost’s study also said “There is no decline in the proportion of women or members of visible minority groups, and indeed these proportions have increased.” Women now make up 55 per cent of law school applicants, up from 49 per cent four years ago, and now make up just under half of all law school students.
The study said that more black students are attending U of T’s law school—almost doubling to nearly four per cent from two per cent. It also noted that U of T admits twice the number of aboriginal students than the average Canadian law school. “There is no pattern that accessibility is declining for this group of students,” the report said.
The study went on to add that “The U of T share of the pool of Canadian students applying to law schools has not declined, and indeed has increased.”
On career choice, the study said “Although tuition has risen much more rapidly at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law than at other Ontario schools, the data show no statistically significant differences in trends in choices of articling positions or practice circumstances when comparing the University of Toronto to other schools.”
Vivek Goel, U of T’s deputy provost, said the results show higher financial aid will ensure accessibility. “The main reason we’re observing this pattern is that along with increases in tuition, we’ve seen massive increases in financial aid,” he said, adding “Over half the students receive aid from the faculty.”
Goel also said that 13 per cent of law school students paid no tuition this year because of financial aid programmes. “The figure ten years ago was three per cent,” he noted.
Goel went on to say higher tuition is not stopping U of T from attracting the brightest law students: “Unless you believe that only rich people have high LSAT scores… they’re getting more applicants from the highest levels.”
Sean Mullin, the GC representative on the Students’ Administrative Council, said the study hasn’t completely made the case for higher tuition levels: “The concern is that they will say ‘now we can go up to $22,000’ without any more discussion on the topic.”
He noted GC members still have concerns about the methodology used in the study. “The methodology never went to Governing Council, and that’s problematic.”
GC will discuss the study in a meeting of the Committee on Academic Policy and Programmes this Thursday.
