Mount Royal University students chanted and hoisted signs at a protest Thursday against proposed tuition hikes. The school is applying to raise tuition for its nursing, sciences and business programs. The proposed hikes work out between $500 and $1500 more a year for a normal course load. Students say the increases would be unfair.
“Students may be inclined to study what they can afford to not what they want to,” says Erik Queenan, president of the Student Association at MRU.
But the school says the so-called “market modifiers” are needed to bring tuition in line with other schools.
“This is not something where we said, hey, at last, finally we can do this,” says University President David Docherty. “This is not about just generating income for the institution.”
MRU wants to charge an extra $150 per business course, $100 per nursing course and $50 dollars per science course. Docherty says the price adjustments will protect the high quality of the three affected programs. When asked if the school would be forced to cut those programs without the increased revenues, he said, “I don’t think we would say we’re going to cut this program that program, it’s not an either-or. We’re early in the budgetary stage.”
The Advanced Education minister is collecting applications for market modifiers from Alberta’s post-secondary institutions until October 15. Don Scott cautions nothing is approved yet. “I want to hear from students going forward. and in the end my goal is going to be a quality education system in alberta that’s going to benefit the future in this province,” he says.
He met with student leaders recently and received an earful about market modifiers. The University of Calgary has also applied for tuition hikes to its law, business and engineering programs to keep pace with other schools.
Katie Norris, an MRU student from Coquitlam, B.C., pays $12,000 a year for tuition and residence fees. She juggles a full-time course load with working 30 hours a week as a restaurant server. She needs the income to buy groceries, but it costs her important study time.
“It’s stressful and it does take a toll on you,” the 21-year-old says. “I feel like with these hikes not only are they costing us more money but they’re also kind of taking away from our education.”
A decision on the market modifiers is expected from the Advanced Education Ministry in December.
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