U of T is set to significantly increase tuition fees for international students beginning in the 2005-2006 academic year, The Varsity has learned. The increases, expected to be approved by Governing Council later this month, vary between programs, but international students can expect to pay an average of 20 per cent more for their tuition in September, and some will pay much more.
International students already pay significantly more in undergraduate and graduate tuition than domestic students at U of T. An undergraduate student from outside Canada enrolled in the arts and sciences BA program paid an average of $11,276 in tuition fees for the 2004-2005 academic year. According to a fee schedule approved by the university’s business board for the 2005-2006 academic year, an international undergraduate student entering that same program at U of T in September 2005 will pay $16,000, an increase of over 41 per cent in just one year.
If the fee schedule is approved at next week’s Governing Council meeting, all international students who enrol at U of T in the 2005-2006 academic year will pay at least $12,000 per year by 2007, regardless of what program they are enrolled in.
David Farrar, U of T’s Vice Provost Students, said the increases are designed to bring international student tuition in line with the full cost of an education at U of T. Unlike domestic students, U of T does not receive provincial grant money to subsidize the cost of international students’ educations.
Farrar also noted that U of T is not obligated to be accessible to international students, only domestic students, and said that while international students “enrich campus life,” U of T is not compelled to offer them an affordable education.
Farrar also said that the fee increase will allow “full-cost recovery” (meaning that U of T will fully recoup the costs of educating international students) and said that U of T will not be profiting from international students who come to U of T.
“International students will now be paying the full cost of their education” Farrar told The Varsity on Wednesday. “The [assertion] that the university is making money from international students is simply not true”
U of T’s price tag for international student tuition, Farrar said, is “among the lowest in North America,” said Farrar. An official statement issued by U of T last week said that “international student tuition at U of T would continue to be significantly less than peer institutions in the U.S. and less than some other research-intensive universities in Canada.”
Farrar conceded that visa limitation on foreign students, which prohibits them from taking jobs off-campus, is a problem, and said that the university is making an effort to make it easier for international students to work while in Canada.
“We are working to change those rules” he said, adding that U of T can only lobby the federal government to enact changes to the employment restrictions on international students, and that the university has no authority to alter visa regulations.
Despite assurances that the administration is not profiting from the fee increases, many student leaders are apprehensive to see international-student tuition rise so sharply.
“Increases in tuition are a bad thing generally, for both domestic students and international students” said Jen Hassum, SAC’s incoming VP External. “It important to keep post secondary education affordable, so that everyone can have the opportunity to attend university.”
Hassum agreed that the inability of international students to work off campus is a serious issue.
“They don’t have the same opportunities to an earn money during the year to offset the cost of high tuition,” Hassum said.
According to Farrar, the university is developing a scholarship program to assist international students with the costs of tuition. The program will allow U of T to attract international students from a variety of backgrounds.
U of T has approximately 6,000 international students, mostly from China and the United States, who make up approximately nine per cent of the student body.
