Tuition

These two letters in the Globe and Mail here and here were posted on Dale Kirby’s Postsecondary Education blog last week. These two letter demonstrate how complicated the whole issue of tuition fees in Canada really is. It is very clear that tuition fees are not the sole barrier to a postsecondary education. For example, look at tuition fees and participation rates in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia has the highest tuition fees in the country, but we also have one of the highest participation rates (33%), as opposed to Quebec which has the lowest tuition fees and one of the lowest participation rates (20%). One can also look at the fact, that although Nova Scotia has the highest tuition fees students from other provinces flock to this provinces to go to university. I don't know why this is, but it definitely cannot be because we are the most expensive. Stats Can has also released a study that looks at factors besides tuition that affect access to postsecondary education.

What is the point of all this? I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that simply reducing or eliminating tuition in Canada will not solve the problem of getting students from traditionally underrepresented groups, or low income backgrounds into our postsecondary education system. There is no doubt that Nova Scotia needs to get its fees in line with the rest of the country, but the bigger question for me is what we do once we get there.