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Manitoba engineering students back 38% tuition hike

Canadian Press

Latest comment posted at 12:47 AM EST 09/03/07

Would bring to an end a seven-year freeze on tuitions at the University of Manitoba ...Read the full article

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  1. Jason D from Toronto expat, United States writes: It's about time that university students across the country stop griping and whining about high fees and look at the long term: increased job prospects with increased salaries. I know firsthand how difficult it is to make ends meet while in University; how tough it is to have to take on an ever increasing debt - but that's life, quit the damn whining and get on with it! Life ain't easy. Tuition across the country should be deregulated in every discipline so that not only students' needs are accommodated, but society at large. Students see the benefits of increased tuition with more instructors, smaller class sizes, more advanced tools and infrastructure, and society reaps the rewards with more talented people to fill ever increasing needs while driving down the expense of paying a scarce number of people. I'm a Graduate student who will graduate having spent approximately $220,000 on my education, and having incurred approximately $150,000 worth of debt. This was my choosing. I was well aware that I could have gone into the trades, community college, not to grad school, or not even to grad school in the country that I'm in - but this is the Cross I chose to bear. Students at all levels need to quit their complaining and realize that there are other options available - they may not be as "flashy" as they would prefer, but they are nevertheless available. To those that argue that less people will enter, I say just look at the professional schools across North America: they're booming! Simple economics dictates that demand and supply will meet at society's optimal point.
  2. Philip Van Bergen from Hashima, Canada writes: 150,000 debt? I'm glad I graduated with none! My folks paid half of my university expenses, and I paid half and I managed on a tiny budget, but it helped me out a great deal. Life is tough enough to manage without debts at 23/24, and it gets worse with morgages and kids. As for earning a lot more, well, I'm not so sure. Tradespeople in Alberta seem to earn
    the most these days!
  3. jay bechtloff from Canada writes: Well Jason, I guess we can tell that with you being an expat in the US that you believe the US model is best, I prefer the European model where universtiy is accessable to everyone at little or no cost. Society as a whole benefits when the general population is educated. Society pays for everyones primary education, maybe that should be pay as you go for parents too. That way the dinks or sinks wouldn't have to pay extra money either.

    Having seen the Euro student experience I'm very jealous of the advantages that they have over us Canadians. They get to relax, they still have vacations. They aren't working 40 hours in the summer and part time during the school year.
  4. j.r ewing from vancouver, Canada writes: If the tuition is not raised, then the services that the school offers are compromised and the financial burden is passed to the tax payer. The taxes in this country are too high as it is, so there is not much choice. Since the schools are heavily subsidized anyway, the tuition raise is not catastrophic. The advantage to the U.S model is it encourages scholarships and corporate employment programs that help pay tuition. (work experience).
  5. Patrick Dunn from Oakville, Canada writes: Mr Bechtloff,
    You make a good point however you may have shot yourself in the foot by ridiculing Jason's decision to leave the country: with universities receiving diminishing investments and working under tuition freezes how are we to keep any skilled academics/researchers around to educate the future generations?

    If you'd like a rough estimate of the real cost of education look at what the international students are paying to come to Canadian universities.

    I'm lucky to have received a subsidized education but I don't kid myself for one second that it is sustainable on its current path.
  6. Rick Czarnota from Calgary, writes: jay bechtloff from Canada writes: I prefer the European model where universtiy is accessable to everyone at little or no cost. You know Jay I would like that model as well. That way instead of having to finish a degree and become productive in the real world I could have just stayed in university all my life. Drifting from one degree to another enjoying the easy life...and yes folks being a university student is probably the easiest time of your life. There is nothing I miss more than being able to hit the gym in the middle of the afternoon between fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. Post secondary education is not a birth right nor is it the right choice for the majority of the population. I busted my a$$ to get through school and yes I was burdened by student loans afterwards. However those loans will only be on the books for another year or two and then I'm done paying. That is a much better and cheaper prospect than having to chip for everyone else's education for the rest of my life. One question that never gets answered...if post secondary education is so valuable why are so many people not will to pay for it? More people would be better off if they figured out the world...and more importantly...the rest of the tax paying citizens of this country don't owe them a living.
  7. Rudy H from Canada writes: If it is of value, it is worth paying for. Glad to see that such a large percentage of young minds HAVE grown up. But then again, Engineering is one of the areas that deal with the real world rather than the world some would like it to be.
  8. bring back the PIZZA-HUT PRIAZZO! from Canada writes: thats rediculous. all the faculty had to do was slack off, and the students caved like that? what they shoulda did was goto other schools.
  9. Kai So from Saskatoon, Canada writes: I would like to congratulate the students in Manitoba on their stand to accept to pay a larger portion of their education costs than their peers who have demanded tuition freezes across Canada. I am a university student in Saskatoon and I can tell you that while the big protests such as the "Day of Action" last month organized by the Canadian Federation of Students made the news, it is not the view of most students in the country. If one looks to the reports and studies that have been made by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, one would see the statistic that over 70% of students with student loans do not feel that the size of the loan or their ability to pay it off is a problem.

    So my question is...who makes up the 25-odd percent of students who complain about tuition rates? Maybe it's the same 20-odd percent of the voting population that votes to the left... or maybe it's the people who did not save up for their education because they feel that it's their "RIGHT" to an education. (btw, since when did postsecondary education become a "right" or something that everyone is entitled to?)

    I hope that others also see the light. Especially the students in Quebec with their heavily subsidized university tuition. Let's not forget that for every student that goes on to college or university, 32 million other Canadians are helping to subsidize their education so that they themselves can make more income when they graduate.

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