If you’ve looked at your fees invoice on ROSI for the first time in a few months recently, you may have been surprised to notice a 1.5 per cent monthly service charge added to tuition starting in November.
If you were unaware of the charge, you’re not alone. Many fourth-year students and even student unions like the Woodsworth College Students Association have no idea that the service charge exists.
But according to Jennifer Guyatt, associate registrar at Woodsworth College, the charge has always been here, and students shouldn’t ignore it.
“I’ve been here for twenty years, and the charge has always existed,” said Guyatt. “These charges are there to encourage students to pay in a timely manner.
“In fact, four sessions ago the charge came in October, but the university pushed it to November to give students more time,” she added.
Information about the service charge isn’t that hard to find. It’s located on student invoices, the fees website, and ROSI.
U of T registrar staff said that it is considered an expected side cost of tuition.
“The charge is calculated into tuition when the university gives OSAP their estimate,” said Student Accounts manager, Ann Lewis. “When students ask for OSAP these costs are taken into consideration.”
Even if OSAP has these charges in mind when distributing money, many students are still concerned. Many feel the timing of the charge punishes students who don’t get enough money to pay all their tuition with their first OSAP installment and must wait until the next instalment in January to meet all their expenses. Until then, 1.5 per cent is added on each month. For a student who has paid only half their fees of $5,000 tuition, the charge is works out to about $37 per month.
For second-year linguistics major Mera Nirmalan-Nathan, this makes no sense.
“The university knows students have to wait for OSAP-you get the money in September and January-so why do charges start in November? If they started the charges in January at least students would have all their funding and wouldn’t have any excuse not to pay. If OSAP is a student’s only form of income, how does the university expect the student to make up the shortfall in tuition between the first OSAP payment in September and when service charges start in November?”
According to Guyatt and Lewis there are ways to alleviate the charge or get more help if a student is in dire need.
“If a student’s OSAP is held up they can go to Admissions and Awards and the fees may be cancelled,” said Lewis. “If you pay in monthly installments, then tuition lessens, thereby lessening the service charge to a manageable amount.”
“There are grants that students can apply for if they don’t have enough, but they need to look at this like it’s the real world, like interest on a credit card bill, it needs to be paid,” said Guyatt. She encourages students to “read the material!”
The university’s policy on Student Financial Support states that “[n]o student admitted to a program at the University should be unable to enter or complete the program due to lack of financial means.”
One anonymous student responded with scorn.
“The university charges tuition and then they charge service fees on top of that. Then when a student can’t meet those costs, then they give us grants? Isn’t this self-defeating?”
