By Erica Butler and Meg Cunningham
Mount Allison students will be facing more than just increased tuition costs in September, says Student Union president Jon Ferguson.
Ferguson is concerned for students experiencing hundreds to thousands more in unexpected residence fees on top of the tuition increase.
He explains that students are no longer able to share rooms due to COVID-19 risks.
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“There’s a lot of students that were going to be in double or triple rooms and they had to upgrade to single rooms. In certain scenarios it would be somewhere from $500 to $1000 for a lot of students that would have to upgrade. If we’re talking about the worst-case scenario, you’re looking at an upgrade of well over $2000. I think it was closer to $2500 or actually even higher for one student living in residence for those eight or nine months.”
Mount Allison’s media relations officer Laura Dillman says students who are impacted “will be able to apply for bursary assistance based on financial need.”
Mount Allison student Alison S. is concerned about the increased tuition fees for herself and fellow students.
Alison could not find a summer job due to COVID-19.
She is relying exclusively on student loans to pay for the increased tuition and fees this year, which she says is, “very unsettling.”
Alison is disappointed in Mount Allison’s recent choices.
She says “students are often heard but not necessarily listened to by the administration.”
Alison endorses the student union’s initiative to repeal the tuition increase, which includes an online petition on Change.org.
Will a tuition hike drive away students?
One Mount Allison student says he worries that by increasing tuition this year, the university could be driving away students.
Justin Hughes is a fourth year Computer Science student who says his tuition has gone up 15% since his first year.
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“Many students will probably be looking at taking either like taking a gap year or completely going to a different school together.”
Hughes points out the Mount Allison has the highest undergraduate tuition in the country, and many other schools offer lower rates.
He thinks a tuition freeze, or even a reduction, could have helped Mount Allison recruit students back to classes, even though they are mostly online.
After hearing about the tuition hike through social media on Tuesday, Hughes started an online petition to protest the hike.
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“Seeing that there are other people that have the same issue definitely fueled my desire to do something about it.”
Hughes also worries that he might not be getting as much value from his educational experience this year, due to classes being moved online, with only some on-campus components.
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“I think that if students are put in this position where they don’t have a professor who is quite as available as an in person class, then they shouldn’t have to pay as much because they’re not getting as much out of the class.”
A survey commissioned earlier this year seems to indicate Hughes is not alone with his concerns.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Canadian Federation of Students commissioned the survey which shows a significant number of students are reconsidering their plans for university and college in the fall, citing lost income, limited support, and concerns about the quality of remote learning.
The survey found that among students who said they could still afford school, about 75 per cent were worried that distance learning would create a poor learning experience.
Hughes says while he knows that rising tuition is a problem at other universities, he feels the Mount Allison administration needs to do more to help keep student fees affordable.
New Brunswick students pay less, but still more
Hughes is a Nova Scotia resident, and so doesn’t benefit from the provincial government’s Memorandum of Understanding with Mount Allison.
The 2018 agreement caps tuition increases at 2% per year for all New Brunswick students who started before September 2019.
Those students will see a tuition increase in the neighbourhood of $200 this year. Their total tuition is over $900 less than their Canadian counterparts.
For New Brunswick students who started last year or later, tuition costs about $500 more than their earlier enrolled counterparts, but $400 less than students from outside the province.
About 40% of Mount Allison students come from New Brunswick. Last year, another 27% came from Atlantic Canada, with the lion’s share coming from Nova Scotia.
