Redford announces tuition freeze

Premier Redford was in Edmonton Thursday morning and announced a freeze on tuition rates for the upcoming academic year.

“Well there’s just not enough. We know that in this province, with a 38 million dollar budget, that we can provide the services that Albertans need,” Premier Alison Redford said at the podium. “That we can continue to support the programs that matter, that we can challenge people that are working in our public and our private institutions, to continue to build and to grow, and to change.”

One of many announcements made by the government regarding post-secondary education, but this one is getting a mixed reaction.

University of Lethbridge students warn the news doesn’t mean the fight for education is over.

“As a student I’m glad my tuition won’t be going up, but in the long term I’m worried it might have negative implications,” said Leslie Mahoney, a 4^th year student at the school.

Annual inflation means tuition should have been raised just over 2 percent for the 2013-2014 school year.  But the government plans to make up that shortfall, roughly 16 million dollars.

Lethbridge College admits while it’s happy to hear students won’t be struggling to pay for an education, its future is still uncertain.

“It’s our understanding that enterprise and advanced education will be covering the gaps in tuition this year, based on the tuition freeze that they’ve implemented,” said Gwen Wirth, Communications Specialist for Lethbridge College. “Our concern would be that there would be a compounded effect in subsequent years.  And we’re not sure yet what that’s going to look like.  That remains to be seen.”

But students say they won’t sit quietly for long when it comes to their right to an education.

“I cannot believe that our government has shown this complete lack of investment in post-secondary education in this province,” Mahoney said.  She also helped lead a protest against budget cuts on Tuesday.

While some students say the announcement is good news for their wallets, others are worried about its long term effects, including possible program cuts.