Brad Wall Reneges On Election Promise To Keep Tuition Costs Low - "Implement A Tuition Freeze" - Erin Weir
"Supporting Saskatchewan Students
Over the past four years, the Saskatchewan Party government has provided post-secondary institutions with over $66 million dollars to keep tuition rates reasonable.I n addition, this year:
-Funding for students totals $125 million, including $24.6million to limit tuition increases to an average of about three per cent at Saskatchewan’s post-secondary institutions."
Saskatchewan Party Election Platform - 2011
Statistics Canada reported today that Saskatchewan has the country’s second-highest university tuition fees in 2012-13. Saskatchewan and Ontario are the only two provinces in which the average full-time undergraduate student pays more than $6,000 of tuition fees.
Less than a year ago, the Sask. Party’s election platform touted funding “to limit tuition increases to an average of about three per cent at Saskatchewan’s post-secondary institutions.” Today’s Statistics Canada figures reveal that Saskatchewan’s tuition fees actually rose by five per cent over the past year, the third-largest increase among provinces. For international students, Saskatchewan tuition fees jumped by 11 per cent, the largest increase of any province.
Statistics Canada also reports, “Saskatchewan posted the highest increase in additional compulsory fees for undergraduate students” (a whopping 17 per cent in one year).
Rising tuition and other fees threaten to make our public universities less accessible to Saskatchewan students. The Sask. Party’s policy has been to allow students to take on ever more debt rather than to control costs.
Post-secondary education is hugely beneficial for individual students and for the wider provincial economy. As a first step toward ensuring that all academically qualified Saskatchewan students have the option of university study, the provincial government should implement a tuition freeze.
Statistics Canada release:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/120912/dq120912a-eng.htm
Undergraduate Tuition Fees:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/120912/t120912a001-eng.htm
Sask. Party Platform (see page 21; 22 of 49 in the PDF):
http://saskparty.com/index.php?pageid=Platform
Erin Weir
Candidate For Leader
Saskatchewan New Democrats