Statistics Canada has recently released the Post-secondary Education Participation Survey (PEPS) indicating that students with family earnings of $80,000 and up are more likely to pursue post-secondary education and that number dwindles as family income decreases. With tuition continually on the rise, students inevitably face increasing financial challenges. In deregulated undergraduate programs such as Commerce, Computer Science and Engineering, tuition is not capped at two per cent as in other regulated programs.
Many opponents of deregulation, including Joel Duff, Ontario Chairperson for Canadian Federation of Students, argue that there are no benefits to deregulation and that it simply allows the government to justify unlimited tuition increase. Duff also says that deregulation is bogus, claiming that increases in tuition will not improve the quality of university education nor attract better students, since many will not be able to afford it.
“It’s simply a reduce in government funding. It’s transferring the responsibility from society to the individual. It ultimately means that the rich will have better access while the poor gets left behind…it’s just discriminatory,” says Duff.
While the question of equal opportunity to post-secondary education remains debatable, what is certain is that more people are going to university. Statistics show that student enrollment over the past 10 years at U of T has increased from 44,371 in 1992 to 47,265 in 2002.
This past summer, many double cohort students were worried that there would not be enough spots for them this year. With more students attending university and at the same time, paying higher tuition fees, the question becomes whether they are really getting a better education, especially those in deregulated undergraduate programs.
According to Wendy Rotenberg, an associate professor of accounting and finance and director of the Commerce and Finance Program at U of T, Commerce students are certainly getting a better education. In a public statement, Rotenberg explains the increase in resources will “provide students with state-of-the-art classrooms, attract and retain the best faculty, enhance our curriculum, support an engaging student community and provide services comparable to those enjoyed by students at other leading business schools.” Rotenberg emphasizes that while Commerce students pay $8,000 per year for tuition, it is nevertheless lower that what other students pay at Queen’s or Richard Ivey School of Business at Western. Moreover, she points out that “30 per cent of all tuition increases go toward student aid.”
According to Sarah Mansour, a fourth-year Commerce student and the president of the U of T Finance Association, there have been new changes in the Commerce program such as a new COM 110 course and a new alumni “buddy system” program for fourth-year students. As well, she mentions many MBA level courses have been brought down to the undergraduate level. Mansour admits she is aware of the many new improvements in the program but questions whether the cost is justified.
“I can’t exactly say I know where all the money is going, but I know there have been changes since I was in first year. Our education at Rotman for a commerce undergrad is a really strong, solid education…it’s definitely improved but it’s a lot to pay and I wouldn’t say that paying that much money is warranted,” says Mansour.
Likewise, Michael Sivilia and Wilfred Villegas, both fourth-year Computer Science students, are confident about their education here at U of T. They both feel the Computer Science program is rigorous, highly competitive and well prepared for the real world. They agree there have been positive changes in the curriculum but like Mansour, they feel that tuition is simply too high and are grateful this is their last year.
“Going to [U of T] is competitive and in a way, you are kinda set for the real world. Lots of assignments but the education is good,” says Sivilia. However, he also notes “Tuition is definitely too high, it’s getting out of hand and lots of students won’t be able to afford it and I’m already on OSAP. Luckily this is my last year and I don’t have to come back.” Villegas agrees. “Yeah, we get the new building and everything, we get some new computers too but those computers are always being used…when assignments come in, there are always line-ups like there’s never enough.”
Furthermore, a full-time student in the Computer Science Program pays the same program fees whether s/he takes three courses or six courses. Rini Ghosh, President of ASSU, points out a problem with the system. “If I take three courses a year and I need 20 credits to graduate, that’s over six years of school. And 6 years…I have to pay so much money for one degree,” says Ghosh.
Eugene Fiume, chair of the Department of Computer Science, believes otherwise. “This is a tricky question but at the end of the day, it essentially comes down to a program cost and not a course cost. If you chop it up per course and look at it that way, it does become funny. But at the end, you get a degree in Computer Science and it’s that that is really enabling. It’s no one course but a whole program,” he explains.
Fiume emphasizes that the extra resources allows the department to hire the best quality instructors for Computer Science. That is, permanent lecturers, not part-time graduate student lecturers, teach all of the first and second year courses and they are the ones who know how to teach and motivate students. Secondly, the department also hires a number of outstanding researchers to teach for third and fourth year courses where the curriculum focuses on research-based learning, which prepares students for graduate school and the job market.
“We can talk about numbers, student ratios, classrooms, couches, computers and things like that, but it’s really about the quality of people we can hire to work with our students that makes the difference,” says Fiume. He adds, “Our student evaluations [from ASSU] have certainly gone up. And there are some courses that are so popular that we do have to put caps on them…they are in such high demand that they can be put in Con Hall but the quality would be reduced.”
Fiume also wants students to understand that the relationship between tuition increase and changes in the program is not obvious and direct. “The connection between tuition and a specific service is very indirect because that’s not the way things work. A considerable part of tuition goes to student assistance and other things. You can’t really have a dollar increase in tuition to a specific initiative,” explains Fiume.
Statistics show that in 2000-2001, the median class size for first year Arts and Science at U of T was 24 (this means that half of the classes had fewer than 24 students and half had more than 24 students); for second year: 44; for third year: 29; for fourth year: 9. A year later in 2001-2002, the median for first year was 27; for second year: 47; for third year: 31 and for fourth year: 9.
As well, there are more classes that have more than 500 people in the year 2001-2002 (1.9%) than in 1997-1998 (0.9%). Finally, U of T had the highest student-to-faculty ratio in the year 2001 compared with universities such as Washington, California-Berkeley, North Carolina and other universities in the States.
