Students who have just arrived back at university and college for the new semester need to face a hard truth: they aren’t contributing enough towards their education. It’s time for tuition fees to rise.
The reality is that Canadian post-secondary students have been getting an easy ride for the last decade and a half as international students paid a big chunk of the bills. When adjusted for inflation, Canadian undergraduate students pay less in tuition now than they did in 2019. With the massive cutbacks in international student permits, it’s essential that domestic students contribute more in order to protect the health of their institutions and ensure they can still deliver quality education.
The federal government’s reduction of the number of international students, which began two years ago, has caused a financial crisis for universities and colleges. Classes and programs – even entire campuses – have been cut, and thousands have lost their jobs. While some of the cuts were unavoidable, the bleeding needs to stop so young people can continue to find spots in post-secondary institutions in their chosen fields of study, with reasonable class sizes and sufficient staff support.
McGill University in downtown Montreal. The Quebec government is trying to raise tuition for out-of-province Canadians, while keeping the rates for locals low – about half the national average.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Universities and colleges make massive contributions to the country and to the economy. They need a lifeline, and a sizeable portion of the funds should come from those who benefit from them the most. Students with university degrees or college diplomas make substantially more money after graduation than those without them, and they tend to come from wealthier families to begin with.
The falling cost of tuition
The amount students pay in tuition has fallen below inflation in recent years. As shown in the chart below, the national average that undergraduates pay in tuition dropped in 2019, driven by the 10-per-cent tuition cut and subsequent freeze by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government.
After inflation, average national undergraduate fees are now roughly where they were in the 2013-14 academic year. There has been a gradual rise in that average over the last couple of years, but it’s mainly due to more students enrolling in pricier programs, such as engineering.
For example, an arts or science student at the University of Toronto from Ontario paid $6,780 in 2018-19, which would be $8,400 in today’s dollars. This past fall, these students paid just $6,100. Meanwhile, the cost of running universities keeps rising.
Many provinces have limited tuition increases for domestic students. B.C. has a 2-per-cent cap on tuition hikes, and after allowing tuition to rise, Alberta brought in its own 2-per-cent cap in 2024. In Quebec, the government is trying to boost tuition for out-of-province Canadians, yet the rates for locals have remained low – about half the national average.
Immigration cuts leave an Ontario college, and its city, feeling the strain
Across the country, foreign students have been a welcome cash cow, helping institutions stay afloat despite low tuition, stagnant government funding and a rising number of domestic students. On average, foreign undergraduate students pay five times the rate as domestic students, more than $40,000 per year.
The international student population soared to one million in 2023, up from 350,000 in 2015. In Ontario, the province most reliant on foreign recruitment, an eye-popping 54.5 per cent of the student body at colleges were international students in the 2023-24 school year. The chart below shows how in 2007-08, international undergraduate students paid just 17 per cent of overall tuition dollars, but the percentage soared to 57 per cent by 2023-24.
The federal government was right to wind down the party, given pressures on the housing market and the fact that study permits had become a back door for low-cost labour. Now that international student numbers have dropped – and with more reductions to come, due to an even lower cap announced in the federal budget – it’s clear that for 15 years, international students masked post-secondary’s fiscal problems. Cutting to the bone isn’t the answer – universities and colleges need more reliable sources of income. With provincial governments already running deep deficits, its not realistic that all shortfalls can be covered by the public purse.
The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. According to the Higher Education Strategy Associates, student aid has tripled to $20-billion after inflation since the 1990s.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
Debt is a problem – but not for most students
Advocacy groups are quick to say that students are struggling under increasing debt loads and can’t shoulder tuition hikes. Student affordability is an important issue, but university students’ average debt loads are below what they were a decade ago when adjusted for inflation. Most students don’t take on any debt during their studies, although 30 to 35 per cent of college students and 40 to 45 per cent of university students borrow from the government during their studies.
Since the 1990s, student aid has tripled to $20-billion after inflation, according to figures from Higher Education Strategy Associates. Once largely dependent on loans, students now can seek out government grants, which have increased more than sixfold after inflation; institutional grants to students have increased tenfold.
In fact, the total amount of non-repayable assistance, including grants and tax credits, is now more than the $10-billion that Canadians pay in tuition. While student groups like to argue that tuition should be free, it’s actually more equitable to have students pay for a portion of their education through tuition, while offering means-tested aid to those from lower income families. Eliminating tuition entirely would in effect be a subsidy for more affluent families, paid for in part by less-educated lower earners.
Students take an exam at York University in Toronto. The national average that undergraduates pay in tuition dropped in 2019, driven by the 10-per-cent tuition cut and subsequent freeze by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Study time for reform is over
Provincial governments have been taking their time studying the predicament of the post-secondary sector – the longer they wait, the more harm is done. They should give universities and colleges the ability to raise tuition, with reasonable limits to avoid sudden jumps.
The 2023 report from Ontario’s Blue-Ribbon Panel on Postsecondary Education Financial Sustainability recommended a one-time tuition hike of 5 per cent, followed by subsequent rises of 2 per cent per year, or more if inflation is higher. It also sensibly suggested that universities and colleges be allowed to increase tuition by a further 3 per cent for a small number of professional programs where graduate incomes are higher.
Hard decisions need to be made about which ones should continue. While students need to contribute, post-secondary leaders also need to do their part.
Governments also need to contribute to the hole left by the collapse of the foreign student boom. While accounting for inflation, public funding per domestic postsecondary student has dropped by 6 per cent since 2009, with funding to domestic university students down 15 per cent. In the past 15 years, both federal and provincial postsecondary spending has also dropped as a percentage of total expenditures.
Public funding in Ontario, in particular, is well below the national average. One measure that could help without putting more pressure on the public purse would be for the province to stop diverting workplace training to unions through its Skills Development Fund and give the money to public colleges.
The federal government also needs to do its part by providing stable funding for research – an important contribution, given Canada’s lagging R&D – and ensure that grant money continues to be available to low income students.
Canada’s post-secondary institutions offer a pathway upward for young people, who need to pay their share to keep them healthy. While tuition hikes aren’t something students want to ponder as they settle back into classes, there’s a lesson in financial stability that needs to be learned.