Office of the Speaker - Students` Society of McGill University
Transcription
Office of the Speaker - Students` Society of McGill University
Celebrating over 100 years of SSMU Office of the Speaker Policy on Accessible Education Whereas, Canada is a signatory of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified in 1976, which states that “Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education”i; and Whereas, between the years of 1988 and 2003, government funding as a percentage of total university operating budgets decreased from 87% to 67.8% in favour of increases in contributions from households (by 5.6%) and other private sources (by 13.7%)ii; and Whereas, the Québec government of Jean Charest has consistently prioritized income and corporate tax cuts over funding education and other social programs, such as the $950 million general tax cut of 2007-8 in the same year of the tuition defreezeiii; and Whereas, a report commissioned by the ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport in 2007 estimated that, notwithstanding tax credits and expanded financial assistance, an increase in Québec university tuition fees from 1,617.76$, the level at the time, to 4,893.13$, a level comparable to the Canadian average, would have had the effect of reducing the number of university students in Québec by more than 22 000, or 9.6%iv; and Whereas, out-of-province and international students in regulated programs will also be affected by Québec tuition increases because their base fee is Québec tuitionvvi; and Whereas, total student debt in Canada is over $13 billion, and is increasingvii; and Whereas, a survey conducted by Statistics Canada in 2009 indicated that, two years after graduation, the average outstanding debt of Canadian bachelor’s graduates with student debt exceeded $20,000viii; and Whereas, the number of Canadian students relying on student loans has increased as tuition has increased, rising from 49% to 57% from 1995 to 2005ix; and Whereas, of those Canadians who do not attend university due to financial constraints, one quarter cite the fear of incurring debt as their primary concernx; and Whereas, while targeted financial assistance is effectively limited to families below the low-income cut-off, and Statistics Canada notes there is little difference in university participation rates between students from low-income families and students from moderate-income families, financial aid does/will not suffice in offsetting the effects of tuition increases on the accessibility of postsecondary educationxi; and Celebrating over 100 years of SSMU Office of the Speaker Whereas, the abolition of tuition and the rectification of the Québec university underfunding crisis would have cost the province only $1.22 billion in 2007xii; and Whereas, it is possible for a society to provide high-quality post-secondary education without resorting to tuition fees, as demonstrated by the examples of Denmarkxiii and Swedenxiv,xv; and Whereas, the Government of Canada could reduce student debt by approximately 75%, by simply converting existing education tax credits to need-based student grantsxvi; Be it resolved that the SSMU shall: • Stand for the right to high-quality, universally accessible post-secondary education; • Oppose any mechanism or legislation that would permit the increase in non-consensual fees for any student – Québécois, Canadian, or international; • Call for a public re-investment in post-secondary education from all levels of government; • Call for the elimination of all financial barriers to a high-quality post-secondary education, and advocate for a progressive reduction of tuition for all students, including the eventual elimination of ancillary and tuition fees; • Work with all elements of the Québec and Canadian student movements towards these goals. Respectfully submitted, Amara Possian Myriam Zaidi Tyler Lawson Zach Margolis The External Affairs Committee Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm. ii Statistique Canada, Dépenses en enseignement universitaire selon la provenance directe des fonds, 2003 ; VIERSTRAETE, Valérie, Les frais de scolarité, l’aide financière et la fréquentation des établissements d’enseignement postsecon- daire, MELS, 2007. iii Modest Tax Cuts in Quebec Budget, The Toronto Star, http://www.thestar.com/news/article/183784--modest-tax-cutsin-quebec-budget. iv Vierstraete, Les frais de scolarité, 112. v McGill University Students Accounts Website, http://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/fees/tuition/. vi "Studying in Quebec." Ministère De L'Éducation, Du Loisir Et Du Sport. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/international/index_en.asp?page=universite>. vii Canadian Federation of Students (http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/studentdebt/index.html). viii Statistics Canada, 2009 (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/090422/dq090422a-eng.htm). ix Luong, May. 2010. “The financial impact of student loans.” Perspectives on Labour and Income. Vol. 11, no. 1. January. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 75-001-XIE. x Malatest, R.A. and Associates Ltd. “The Class of 2003: High school follow-up survey.” Millennium Scholarship Foundation, 2007. i Celebrating over 100 years of SSMU Office of the Speaker Mackenzie, Hugh. “Tuition Trap.” Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, Sept. 2005. IRIS: 3 scenarios 2007. xiii Valérie Vierstraete, Les frais de scolarité, l’aide financière aux études et la fréquentation des établissements d’enseignement postsecondaire – Comparaison à l’échelle internationale et étude de scénarios pour le Québec (Québec : Gouvernement du Québec – Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, 2007), 22-31. xiv The method employed here to assess the quality of higher education in Sweden is the same as used by Vierstraete on page 22 of her report: dividing the number of Swedish universities appearing in the Top 200 of the Times ranking (six) by the population of Sweden, in millions (9.35). The ratio obtained is 64,1%. “The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010-2011”, Times Higher Education, accessed March 2011, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html. xv “Tuition fees”, Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, accessed March 4, 2011, xvi Canadian Federation of Students (http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/studentdebt/index.html). xi xii