Alberta tuition freeze continues next year, government commits $17 million in backfill
Juris Graney
A tuition and fee freeze at Canada’s public post-secondary institutes will continue into a fourth year, with the government committing up to $17 million in backfill payments to compensate for the inability of universities and colleges to raise more tuition revenue.
Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt said Thursday the freeze applies to 20 public post-secondary institutions and will apply to apprenticeship tuition.
It will not apply to six private institutions.
Existing mandatory non-instructional fees will also continue to be frozen at all 26 post-secondary institutions and no new fees can be introduced or implemented in 2018-19.
International student tuition will again not be covered in the freeze and that is a major concern for many student groups across the province.
Following a similar announcement in October 2016, in which universities didn’t receive backfill, the University of Canada and MacEwan University both increased international fees.
In December, the U of A increased international tuition by 3.02 per cent and MacEwan increased its by 15 per cent over two academic years. At the time, both universities defended the increases.
The U of A said its increase was to bring its programming costs in line with other international programs across the country while MacEwan said it would use revenue generated by the increase to, in part, help support its own students studying abroad.
Categorised in: Canadian News