It’s time the University of Toronto Students’ Union stopped insisting on lower fees
Comments (10) 
Last year, I paid $5,787.29 for my undergraduate education at the University of Toronto. Is this unreasonable? The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) thinks so. It devotes much of its time and energy to demanding that U of T students pay nothing. They argue education is a right, and claim it’s unfair to charge for it.
They’re right that education is important, but the UTSU’s mantra that students are severely disadvantaged due to high tuition costs is out of touch with reality. Paying for our own education is fair; students are getting good value for their money. Reducing fees to zero is a fantasy that will never come true. The student union could better spend its time improving our university experience − by putting more effort into lobbying for better transit discounts, to cite one example.
For $5,787.29 I got four courses, four professors’ insights and knowledge, access to one of the best library systems in the world, an incredible collection of e-resources, membership at a top notch athletic centre, and countless other resources that range from personal counselling to career advice. All of this is available to me in the heart of one of Canada’s most exciting cities.
When you compare the hourly rate of a post-secondary education to other services, students are getting a good deal. One full year course, which costs $1,028.20, works out to about $22 an hour of class time. This hourly rate is less than what many students pay for a haircut or to have their computer serviced. Of course, there are things U of T could improve, such as reducing class sizes to allow for more interaction between students and professors. But, overall, we’re getting plenty in return for our money.
It doesn’t surprise me that most of my classmates want student fees to be abolished. Given a choice, who wouldn’t want to pay less (everything else being equal)? But, in reality, nobody would accept the dramatic reduction in the quality of their education that would surely follow.
With a $24-billion deficit, the Province of Ontario is hardly in a position to increase funding for post-secondary education to bring down fees. Health care already takes up approximately half of the province’s budget and becomes more expensive every year. And lower tax revenues, due to the recent recession, makes financing new programs difficult. Supporters of dropping tuition fees often call for increasing business taxes to pay for it, but unless we want a corporate exodus from this province that doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.
It’s true that $5,800 could be a barrier to education for some low-income groups. However, there is a better solution to this problem than eliminating fees: targeted aid. U of T’s endowment for student aid stood at more than $540 million in 2009 and in that academic year it disbursed $53 million in needs-based awards. Of course, this aid needs to be well advertised and promoted.
There are also good reasons why students should expect to finance their own education. Although society does benefit when people attend university, the most tangible – and perhaps most significant − gains go to university graduates themselves in the form of higher salaries. According to Statistics Canada, university graduates earned approximately $30,000 more per year than those with only a high school education by the time they turn 50. That means that though the initial costs might be difficult to manage at times, university pays for itself many times over.
Not only is what we pay for our education a fair deal, it’s also possible (believe it or not) to find a benefit to fees. My parents paid my entire first-year tuition. But as an immature 18-year-old, I neglected my school work and even failed a few courses. To my surprise, my mother announced that she wanted me to pay her back for the classes I failed, which I eventually did, but only after a gruelling three years of working numerous minimum-wage jobs. When I returned to school, five years after my initial foray, I had a much stronger sense of the value of my education, and I succeeded for the first time. Had I not felt the cost of my studies, I’m not sure I would have learned the same lesson.
It’s not that I like paying my tuition fees, but barely passing, or even earning average marks, are much easier to justify in a system that gives you your education for free. When you pay there’s more pressure to make the absolute best of your experience.
Our system is fair and balanced. We’re not charged an unreasonable rate and we’re not given our education on a silver platter either. The UTSU, however, wants people to believe that students are being severely short-changed by our system. This is simply not true. And the UTSU is doing U of T students a disservice by focusing on this issue above all others. They could, for example, lobby the administration to create a student centre at the St. George campus or help create more opportunities to work or study abroad. If the UTSU put as much energy into such projects as they do into abolishing student fees, they would be able to do much more for students.
Tomasz Bugajski is a fourth-year history specialist. He also writes and takes photographs for blogTO.com.
Reader Comments
Thanks for a great article, Tomasz! Compared to fees for international university students in Canada, or those paid by British and American students in their home countries, $6,000 a year for tuition is a bargain. I paid about $6,000 for my entire undergrad tuition between 1976 and 1981, so the increase is about five-fold. That is a bit higher than the rise in cost of most big-ticket items, like cars and houses, over the same period, but not glaringly different.
Unlike a car or a house, however, a university degree will help you reap rewards in learning and understanding the world around you for the rest of your life. The value of your degree keeps increasing, rather than depreciating, especially if you keep up to date in your subject after graduation.
I also graduated in history (Medieval and Modern European, Canadian, and International Relations), and have found my studies have given me great insight into the challenges facing us in today’s world. I hope you will also find this to be true for you.
Tomasz, your article is carefully written and well-justified. The University of Toronto is a great place to study and expand your personal experiences. An issue that the UTSU does not address is ensuring that professors and lecturers get paid fair wages and benefits, so that they can continue to provide excellent learning opportunities for students.
Tomasz, this is a great article. You present a very interesting perspective. I agree, Canadian undergraduate students should consider themselves lucky. In comparison to high ranking universities in the US, and to graduate students who are currently paying $2,000 more a year but take few, if any, classes, undergrads at U of T seemingly have little to complain about. Nevertheless, I think the issue is not so much the fees, but how quickly they are going up. Given the large class sizes, and an unequal increase in facilities and wages/benefits for professors and lecturers, the large and consistent yearly increase in tuition is frustrating and seems questionable.
Tomasz, thank you for articulating a welcome counter to a common attitude of entitlement and unrealistic expectations. There is a cost to everything in this world, and the education and experience offered by U of T is a bargain in many respects. UTSU would serve students much better by focusing on lobbying to get maximum value for tuition fees. i am relieved at the prospect of clear-thinking graduates like you who will shortly take their place in our society, and i wish you much success in the future, wherever your path leads you.
Wake up! I pay $10,600 in tuition
I can’t believe you people! You think that paying for college is fair? Get a grip! Education must be free and accessible to those who have the brains and the attitude to handle it! I live in Greece and my BA and MA were both free. Making underprivileged students beg for scholarships and leaving them in debt is pure fascism.
Many families cannot afford to put their kids through school and are afraid of taking on large debts even when student loans are available. As a consequence too many potential students from low-income backgrounds never make it to university. This has profound effects on Canadian society, especially in terms of unemployment, income inequality and class mobility. Whether it be lower tuition or more student aid from low and low-middle income students, the bottom line is that post-secondary education is a public good that benefits society as a whole and, currently, a good that needs to be promoted more aggressively in order to secure the country’s long term competitiveness and economic well-being.
Education can be free. We just need to cut enrolment by 90 per cent. That way, the endowment can pay for everyone’s tuition. But those arguing for no tuition want to increase enrollment. You can’t have it both ways. Education is not a right. It is a privilege. I agree that it is a shame that some deserving students cannot afford university, but 60 to 70 per cent of my class perform at or below average. It seems like a perfectly good plan to kick those people out and allow the deserving ones in.
If a person does want to obtain a good education they will think creatively and many student in high-school think ahead if they know of the type of financial obstacles that will face them. My family was not able to pay for my education but that does not mean that other options were not available. It is true that financial aid is hard to come by but that does not make it non-existent. I have spoken to students from countries in Europe that do receive free university education and the quality definitely does not measure up. We need to be realistic about the kind of goals we set for reducing tuition fees.
And yes, spending five years at U of T for undergraduate studies, I realized that the Student Union wastes an unforgiving amount of time on “fee reduction campaigns.” Where were they when the price of our student metropasses kept rising (or the fact that there is such a limited number of them for sale) or the lack of an energizing student centre that would bring us together? My paying fees did not bring down my experience at U of T but the UTSU waste of time certainly did.
The “pay your way,” “it’s a privilege not a right” crowd always makes me cringe. Carol Shetler states, “I paid about $6,000 for my entire undergrad tuition between 1976 and 1981″ … that is about an increase of five fold.” My tuition for this year will be above $10,000, so it is closer to an increase of 10 times what is was back then.
Society — that means you and I and everyone else — benefits when an individual becomes educated and gains a deeper level of understanding about the world around them. An educated population is essential to a democratic society.
I receive O.S.A.P, yet i still have to work close to 40 hours a week to survive. This is a reality for many students, not all of us are “privileged” enough to have our parents pay our way.
Tuition is already very expensive, and corporate welfare for Canadian universities is becoming commonplace because of cuts to education. That alone should worry every Canadian.