4 National news

skyrocketing tuition fees

The Cadre

Ontario students face

¢ 15 September 1998

Graduate and profession students charged more under

BY RACHEL FUREY

TORONTO(CUP)- Although he was trying to get through law school without taking out any more student loans, Vilko Zbogar is coming to terms with the fact that that isn’t going to happen.

“T'Ihave to borrow,” says Zbogar, a second-year law stu- dent at the University of To- ronto, whose tuition bill, includ- ing incidental fees for the upcoming academic year, totals $5316.

When he becomes a law-

yer, Zbogar plans to work in public interest advocacy. His career choice means he will likely earn less income than many of his peers, and it will take him longer to pay back his loans. But Zbogar is one of the lucky ones. He’s a member of the last of a group of students who began studying law atthe U of T before deregulation. This year’s new batch of law stu- dents will pay almost $1000 more

than Zbogar and their tuition fees will increase by 127 per cent in the next three years. Zbogar is concerned that potential law students with ambitions similar to his own will be deterred by the high price tag. “The law school culture at the U of T promotes wholeheartedly going to Bay street,” he says. “Already that’s the type of person the law school tends to attract. [The deregulation of tuition fees] makes itmore and more difficult for those who want to do something different with their lives to come to U of T law.” First-year law student Rima Ramchandani agrees. “It scares me how much I'll owe when I graduate,” she says. “I’m going to have to get a very well-paying job.” “It’s a huge problem for the profession. Many

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people will be motivated by financial concerns. | will be personally. It’s quite possible that I'll end up in the corporate culture for awhile because of my debt. A lot of [law stu- dents] are in this situation,” adds Ramchandani, who is entering the U of T’s law school this fall.

The rising tuition fees faced by Ramchandani and other students entering pro- fessional or graduate univer- sity programs this fall are the product of deregulation- the process whereby the provin- cial government has com- pletely removed itself from its role as tuition fee regulator.

In other words, it no longer places a cap on the amount universities can charge students in s like law and medicine. Instead, fees for such programs are decided solely by the governing bodies at Ontario’s universities and colleges.

The result is tuition fee invoices totalling $7800 for first- year U of T medical students, $5808 for Queen’s University first-year law students and $8000 for students studying computer animation at Sheridan College.

Student leaders are out- raged by the decision by Mike Harris’ Progressive Conserva- tive government to deregulate fees, a decision which was released in May.

“It’s discrimination,” says Joel Harden, Ontario chairman for the Canadian Federation of Students. “The government says students are “borrowing against their fu- ture incomes,” but there’s no way some students will be able to pay those amounts off.”

If the government

controversial news deregulation policy

wants to make high-income graduates pay more for their education, it should be done through the income tax sys- tem, Harden says.

The Ontario Under- graduate Student Alliance, which is not opposed to tuition fee deregulation, also says the government has made the wrong move.

“The whole process of setting tuition fees depends on it still being socially progres- sive,” says Andrew Boggs, executive director ofthe group.

“It’s possible to have an idea of deregulation that is so- cially progressive but I don’t think this is it.”

Deregulation is the lat- est move by the provincial

Tories to hike fees and cut funding to post-sec- ondary education.

The party slashed more than $400 million from the budgets of universities and collages when it came to of- fice three years ago and since then, administrators have been lobbying for the right to make up that shortfall by dipping into students’ pockets and setting fees as see fit.

Tuition fee levels across the board have increased 30 per cent since 1995.

“We're extremely leased that the government allowed us to do this,” sa

David Scott, a spokesman for crepanc

the Council of Ontario Univer- sities. “Our position has con- sistently been one of letting Ontario universities make choices [about tuition fee lev- els] at the local level.”

And that’s just what the government has done for all university graduate programs and undergraduate profes- sional programs such as den-

tistry, law and medicine.

But all indications are that it won’t stop there.

Once universities can provide proof to the govern- ment that they will be able to double enrollment numbers in their undergraduate engineer- ing and computer science pro- eng! in the next four year, ees will be hiked for those programs as well.

The government says it’s responding to demand. “The reality is the demand for [computer science and engi- neering programs] is very wack says David Trick, an official with the Ministry of Education. “We need to in- crease the number of spaces to respond to the needs of

industry and the demands of students.”

That’s good news for universities that have chosen to take advantage of the gov- ernment’s new policy.

“Our position is one of total deregulation,” says Derek McCammond, U of T vice- provost. But he says deregula- tion doesn’t mean increased fees for all ;

‘ en — t fees or many U of T programs only increased by 10 percent this year even though they he points

Still, the large fee dis- ies lead student lead-

out.

says Ramsaroop, president of

the U of T student council. The ili

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