When Kathryn Fitzgerald opened her invoice this July, she got a nasty surprise-her tuition was almost $5000 more than expected. An international student from Boston, Fitzgerald recently graduated from Trinity College and is starting her Masters of Information Studies this fall. She had expected her tuition to be close to what international students who entered her program last year paid, but instead it increased by 37 per cent, to $18,000.
“I accepted their offer of admission thinking that I would be about $25,000 in debt,” she says. “Now I’m thinking that I’m going to be closer to $40,000, and that’s a big difference.”
The decision to increase international student fees was finalized at governing council last March. They vary across programs, but The Varsity reported an average increase of 20 per cent for incoming students.
“We put that on our website a year ago,” says Dave Farrar, Vice-Provost of Students. “All of our recruiters were made aware of it and all of our literature referenced it.”
“The literature that they sent out with my admissions letter just said that tuition numbers weren’t available yet and they wouldn’t be available until late July,” says Fitzgerald.
Safwat Zaky, Vice-Provost, Planning and Budget, says that he has discussed including more tuition information in offer packages. But for Fitzgerald, it’s too late.
“I’d made all my plans,” she says. “I guess I could withdraw but it would mean totally changing around what I was going to do. [If I had known,] I would have thought a lot more carefully about applying.”
International students pay more because the government does not contribute to their education.
“The justification is simply that the tuition rate was nota sufficient to provide for these students,” says Zaky. “It was much lower than the cost of their education.” Farrar clarified that international students now pay the sum of domestic tuition and the grant that the university would have received from the government. Some student groups, including the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and Students’ Administrative Council, disagree with the formula. They think that international tuition should be frozen.
“We have an international obligation as a wealthy country,” says Gina Trubiani, VP External at the GSU.
The administration argues that the increase brings U of T’s tuition in line with similar universities. Farrar explains that U of T’s tuition was in the bottom quarter of the country. Now it is in the top quarter. He also points out that the new rates are lower than most public universities in the United States.
New scholarships and a new work permit allowing international students to work off campus could help international students cope with their fees. But the scholarship program has not started yet, and will include few students when it does.
“It’s going to be aimed at the very top students that are applying, but a small number of them,” says Farrar. “Probably single digit numbers.” When the scholarships are awarded next fall to undergraduate and professional masters students, they will cover tuition, living costs, and transportation for four years. The second part of the program is already in place and will provide emergency funding for students once they are enrolled.
“A classic example was the tsunami,” says Farrar. “There were students whose entire family income was wiped out by that natural event. So that’s what we’re putting in place: a financial aid package that will deal with unexpected changes.”
International student work permits are also not yet in place.
“Working with government is like moving mountains,” says Ben Yang, director of the International Student Centre. “It takes time. I receive calls from students every day, asking me when that policy will be implemented. My estimation is maybe January.” He isn’t convinced that it will help much. “We only have 24 hours a day [to work].”
Fitzgerald has a job that she could be working at part-time, if the permits were in place. In the meantime, she used some of those hours to write an angry letter to the administration.
“I’m really not happy,” says Fitzgerald. “I’m sure I’ll be really happy in my department, but the university as a whole-I just think that what they’re doing is not right.”
