In the mind of your average university student, thoughts about midterms, coffee, and the upcoming weekend can be found swirling about. However, for most students there is one additional pressing concern hiding in the dark recesses of the mind: the cost of post-secondary education. Tuition fees have gone up steadily in the past decade, and many students now rely on OSAP to fund their endeavours in higher learning. This effectively sentences them to years of debt payments later on in life. Drowning in a sea of debt, students cried out for help, and last year, during the Ontario election campaign, Premier Dalton McGuinty threw them a lifebuoy. He announced that should he be reelected, a grant would be given to all students that would effectively reduce tuition by 30 per cent (or $1600 a year) and that the grant would come into effect in January. The students rejoiced and McGunity managed to hold on to his title of premier.
This month, the full details of the grant were made available. It appears that the grant was more of a scheme designed to win votes rather than a concrete solution to tackle student debt. While some students will receive a grant of $1600 a year, to pay for the grant, the government of Ontario has had to make substantial cuts to education. To students of high academic standing entering university this year, the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship will no longer be available. Also on the chopping block is the $150 textbook grant. Even worse, the government has cut research funding to the universities by $66 million, although the government insists this cut is not related to the tuition grant.
WYATT CLOUGH/THE VARSITY
All of this amounts to a Band-Aid solution rapidly peeling. The proposed effect of lowering tuition by 30 per cent will be erased in the coming years, especially at the University of Toronto. U of T is a research-intensive university, and tuition fees may be raised to make up for the cuts to research funding.
Clearly, our politicians are not treating the issue of post-secondary education with the seriousness it deserves. Students do not need a lifebuoy to save us from the sea of debt. We need a rescue boat. Currently, the main strategy for tackling student debt is to focus on the individual by providing loans through OSAP and offering a few grants. When students get stuck on OSAP, they provide a constant revenue stream for the government in the future.
However, while this situation may be in the best interest of the government, it is not in the best interest of the economy and the future workforce. Student debt payments lower the amount of disposable income available to students once they graduate and may prevent them from pursuing graduate studies to upgrade their career possibilities. The possibility of excess student loan debt also has a deterring effect on the individuals yet to enter university.
The current approach is also negatively affecting universities. The ivory tower is an expensive one, and usually universities do not make any substantial ‘profit’. However, their bottom line is declining while expenses continue to increase. So, universities are faced with the options of raising tuition fees and bringing on corporate donations to fund programs. Both have potentially detrimental effects.
With higher tuition fees, more students may be forced into seeking part-time employment. With time divided between studying and working, students can expect negative effects on the social atmosphere of the university and potentially on their grades. With regard to corporate funding, this brings in the unsettling possibility of interference in the classroom and research projects.
So, what should be done? Funding should be focused first on the universities and then on the individual. By doing this, the university’s costs decrease and as a result tuition fees themselves will be lowered, allowing the government to reduce the amount given to the individual, and to tackle the real problem of high tuition fees, rather than providing more cash to the student. In the amount that would be given to the student, the distribution of funds between OSAP and grants should be roughly equal.
Post-secondary education may not be a hot-button issue in the Canadian electorate currently, but it will have major implications for our country’s future. So, while this plan may be costly to the government in the short term, it will allow for more students to be educated and it will drastically reduce the time during which students are in debt. And that is something worth investing in.
