by Meg Cunningham and Erica Butler
Mount Allison students are looking at a 4.5% increase in tuition fees according to a fee schedule posted on the university’s website Tuesday.
Last year’s undergraduate fees for Canadian students were $8770.
This year the fees will go up by $395, to $9,165 for a full time student.
New Brunswick residents qualify for a provincial discount of between $410 and $915 deducted from tuition.
The Registrar’s office tweeted out a link to the new fees on Tuesday morning, causing some students to react on social media.
Late Wednesday afternoon, University President Jean-Paul Boudreau sent out an email explaining the increase.
Boudreau says the decision was made July 3rd by the executive committee of the university’s Board of Regents.
While approval of the university’s budget has been delayed until October due to the pandemic, Boudreau says students fees had to be set so that students could plan in advance.
Boudreau also says there is a plan to increase student financial aid by at least $400,000.
The Mount Allison Student Union released a statement yesterday addressing the decision saying that they are “profoundly disappointed.”
President of the student union Jon Ferguson says the increase was unexpected for many students, considering that courses will be mostly delivered in online format.
“Certain universities there are students pushing for there to be in fact reduced tuition due to the change in services offered but here we are seeing quite the opposite.”
Ferguson acknowledges that COVID-19 has added more financial stress for students.
“There is a lot of financial strain that students are facing this year that would not have necessarily been planned. Even if there hadn’t been that strain, even if the COVID pandemic had not happened, we would not be in favour of a tuition increase right now.”
The student union has met with Vice President International and Student Affairs Kim Meade to express discontent with the situation.
The union has created a Change.org petition demanding that the increase be repealed.
Ferguson encourages students who are unhappy with the tuition increase to sign the petition and to send their ideas to the student union.
Mount Allison had the highest undergraduate tuition in Canada last year according to Universities Canada.
Tuitions are constantly high at Maritime universities, with 12 of the 15 most expensive Canadian undergrad schools located in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The University of PEI is number 16 on the list.
