Friday, March 26, 2010
Look at the stats!
The upcoming cuts to the University of Alberta funding and increases in overall tution will leave many people wincing when the dust settles. To start, the professional degree programs are looking at upwards of 66% increases in tution. That averages out roughly to $4,000 extra for students looking to enroll in medicine, on top of the tution they are already paying! This could force many students to have to withdraw from their programs without even recieving the degree they have worked so hard for. This situation also applies to the staff, as the U of A is hoping some it’s staff will take voluntary retirment packages, and take unpaid days off. But that won’t cover the entire deficit either, so layoffs are in the near future. Some faculty positions won’t be filled either, which will likely result in seats in certain classes becoming very valued since some classes may be offered less due to lack of staff.
All of this seems to be leaning towards the thinking that education is a privilage not a right. Students may be forced to work full time throughout the whole year just be able to pay for the tutions and the cost of living. It should never come to the point where what class you are in will decide if you are eligible for post secondary education. There are other, less expensive choices of schools throughout Alberta, but individuals looking to get a degree in a professional field must know be able to provide the institution with an obscene amount of money. As I am looking to continue on into business, these increase will affect me and my family. But once my emotions subsided and i started thinking about this situation. The price increases seem discriminatory towards the professional programs but on avergae, students graduating with a degree in medicine, business, or dentistry will likely make more than someone with an arts degree. But this would increase would have to come with a special form of student loan, which I saw mentioned in the recent SU elections. The idea was for a student loan repayment program that was based upon how much money you were making after you received your degree and had a job. You would be paying in accordance to how much you were making at your new job. I think this could alleviate some of the pressure that is being felt by students who will have troubles paying their loans back.
I went and did some comparing to other Universities in Canada and around the world to see how we rank in tuition. Bear in mind that I was only able to obtain the data from these schools for the 2009 fiscal year, so I have no idea if they will be looking at increase too. McGill, the number one rated Canadian university has a student population of 34,000. That is only 3000 less than the U of A! Comparing our 2009 tuition to McGill’s 2009 tuition showed that we were paying, for a domestic student, on average $USD 700 more than McGill! That is 16% more than a school ranked number one in Canada and 18th worldwide! The U of A on the other hand is ranked 59th. Now it is possible that the cost of tuition for a domestic student there is pulled down by a higher population (43% higher) of international students. But tuition for international students is only $100 higher (not including living costs, ect.) at McGill. Graduate student statistics are nearly equal in population (domestic and international) and in tuition. So with looking at this data, McGill must either receive better provincial funding than our fine government has managed to supply us with, or they operate much more efficiently than the U of A. I will leave you with one final stat for you to look over; although these numbers are from 2007, they will still be relevant today. The highest paid university president in the country was our own Indira Samarasekera with a whopping $591,000 salary! The next closest is the president of McMaster at $504,790. All the while the president of McGill is nowhere to be found in the top 5. Needless to say, that would pay for a couple of students wishing to become doctors!
If you wish to see the sites I collected my data from here are the links:
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