British Columbia’s post-secondary students will be resuming their studies next week, but in most cases they’ll be spending little time in the classroom but the same amount in money on tuition.
“You’re paying the same amount, and it’s not the same experience at the end of the day. But the thing is, we have to do it. We have no other option,” UBC international student Aryaman Balla told Global News.
“Learning is definitely more engaging when you’re in class, and you get to go to those lectures,” added fellow student Arkin Pal. “Keeping focused online is definitely a lot harder and requires more self discipline.”
Most post-secondary institutions in the province have moved to virtually 100 per cent online instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reserving in-class work for specialized, hands-on instruction such as science labs.
Tuition, however, will remain unchanged at most institutions, including leading universities such as UBC, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria, though some schools have scrapped fees for things like recreational facilities.
That’s prompted backlash from some students, including one petition to see a rebate at UBC that’s been signed by more than 8,000 people.
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UBC says despite the pandemic, enrollment and deferral rates are on par with previous years.
“Tuition pays for everything that the students do, it pays for faculty, it pays for staff, it pays for the programs they need, it also pays for their financial assistance programs,” Matthew Ramsey, director of university affairs at UBC.
“We also want to reassure our students that at the end of their studies they will graduate from a university that is among the top 40 ranked in the world and their degree will take them places, whether they start online or finish online.”
Ramsey said the school has also boosted its bursary fund to $100 million this year.
The goal is to eventually get students back into the classroom, he added, but that any such move will be at the direction of public health officials.
Tanysha Klassen, chair of the BC Federation of Students, said post-secondary students this year are already facing increased financial pressures, noting that many may have had trouble getting summer work, and that federal COVID-19 support for students was lower than for workers.
But she argued that decades of under-funding have left universities reliant on tuition, particularly from international students, to balance their books.
“Tuition should be cheaper regardless of whether its online or in class,” she said, noting that tuition in B.C. has climbed more than 200 per cent since it was unfrozen two decades ago.
“Over the course of this next semester we’re going to hear how institutions are going to be trying to balance their budgets using international student tuition fees, which they’ve always done, but I think it’s going to be more exacerbated now.”
In the meantime, Pal said he’s just happy to be getting back to the books.
“I am still excited for classes to start, for us to have some sort of structure rather than just the days having no purpose or meaning,” he said.
With files from Nadia Stewart
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