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Tuition fees in Ontario are now the highest in the country, with undergraduates paying just shy of $6,000 a year on average, more than double the cost for students who study in the most affordable jurisdictions – Newfoundland and Quebec.

The growing gap in tuition costs across the country is reflected in new numbers from Statistics Canada. While the average increase for tuition this school year was the same as last, at 3.6 per cent, that national number masks a disparity among provinces in their approaches to fees for postsecondary education.

At one end is Ontario, home to the largest proportion of Canadian undergraduates and universities, where tuition increases have been capped at 5 per cent in recent years. At the same time, other provinces have frozen fees or allowed them to rise more gradually.

Nova Scotia, traditionally the province with the highest tuition levels, cut fees this year for its residents, in part in response to public pressure and students who were leaving the province for less costly undergraduate degrees in Newfoundland. Quebec has long had a two-tier tuition system, with lower rates for provincial residents.

“Increasingly access is not so much about ability as it is geography,” said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, national chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. The group is calling for a national plan for postsecondary education that includes federal transfers earmarked specifically for higher education.

This year's fee increases come at a time when the Ontario government is working on a new plan for postsecondary education, including new regulations for tuition to replace the rules that expire this year. While it is facing pressure from some university leaders to raise the cap on tuition increases, student groups want fees cut, or at the very least pegged to inflation.

The debate over tuition also comes on the heels of a dismal summer for student employment and when many schools are already facing budget shortfalls.

John Milloy, Ontario's Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities said yesterday any decision on tuition will look at the broader issues of access and affordability. “We want to make sure there are not financial barriers to students entering programs,” he said.

Ontario has one of the most generous student aid systems in the country, he said, including a cap on annual debt levels, and its students have the lowest loan default rate.

This is the last year for Ontario's five-year Reaching Higher plan, which followed the recommendations of a report by former premier Bob Rae. The province has established a special team to design a plan for the next five years. “Obviously we are looking at how tuition fits into our overall postsecondary education strategy,” Mr. Milloy said.

Alex Usher, a Toronto-based higher education consultant, said given the current state of provincial budgets, it is unlikely that governments will be able to increase spending on postsecondary education. Against this backdrop, he predicted more tuition increases are likely in the coming years. “Somebody has to pay for it. The question is how much comes from the public purse,” he said.

New numbers on tuition costs also were released yesterday in the United States. Average tuition at four-year public colleges increased 6.5 per cent to $7,020 (U.S.), according to an annual report from the College Board, the non-profit group that owns the SAT exams. At private colleges, average tuition rose 4.4 per cent to $26,273. Tuition increases varied drastically from state to state, with students in jurisdictions such as California facing double-digit increases and others seeing no rise in costs.