March 27, 2003 - 4:00pm
Last year, after six years of frozen tuition, Malaspina made major changes in tuition policy and increased tuition in most programs to avoid massive program cuts and staff lay-offs as a result of major budget shortfalls and announced that fees would likely rise the following year to offset increased expenditures for costs over which the institution has little control.
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New tuition fees have been set at $102 per credit ($306 per course, or $3,060 per year for full-time study) for academic programs; up from $79 per credit or $2,370 per year of full-time study.
Fees for trades programs will be $306 per month - up from $237 - for full-time vocational programs ($3,060 for a 10-month program), or $184 per month for part-time study.
This is an increase of 29%. The tuition increase is required to offset a predicted budget shortfall of $2.694-million.
Fees for co-operative education programs will go up from $350 to $452 per semester for co-op placement, while fees for international students will go up from $7,800 to $8,400 per year (2 semesters). Tuition for English-as-a-Second-Language programs will stay at $3,900 per semester.
The $50 graduation fee and $20 gym usage fee have been eliminated. Lab fees were eliminated last year.
Malaspina’s tuition increase is below that announced earlier this year by the University of Victoria, University of British Columbia and other post-secondary institutions.
To maintain access to post-secondary education, Malaspina plans to increase student financial assistance programs from $500,000 to $625,000, to offset the effects of tuition increases for deserving students in most financial need.
This year, the special bursary fund provided $500 each to 209 ‘high need’ students and $300 each to 320 ‘medium need’ students. The remainder was used to fund on-campus student employment programs.
Fees for high school upgrading (Adult Basic Education) courses will continue to be free for the time being, but they are under review for students who have completed a high school graduation diploma, and a decision is expected in September.
“After many years of tight budgets - mostly as a result of federal government cuts in transfer payments to the provinces that started in 1996 - exploding student demand for our programs and services, as well as rising costs, we have to look to students to share a larger portion of the full cost of their post-secondary education,” said Malaspina president Rich Johnston. “At the same time we’re committed to keeping fees below those charged at UVic, UBC and SFU.
“As an institution we’ve worked very hard at keeping tuition fees affordable by engaging in international education and contract training activities, net revenues of which benefit Canadian students because we’re able to put on many extra courses to meet the needs of our communities. We’re committed to access by financially assisting deserving students as best we can through our tuition bursary program,” he said.
“As a result of student demand and to ensure that students can graduate on time, we plan to put on additional classes in high demand areas such as English, languages, psychology, anthropology, education and science. We also plan to start offering a new Bachelor of Arts, major in criminology this September,” Johnston said.
Student tuition makes up 16% of Malaspina’s total $74-million operating budget.
Tags: In the Community
