Introduction

Since the federal funding cuts of the mid-1990s, the responsibility for financing post-secondary education has been increasingly downloaded onto students and their family. Government funding as a share of university operating revenue plummeted from 80 per cent to less than 64 per cent as a result. As a direct result, the share of university budgets funded by tuition fees near doubled over the last two decades, jumping from 16 per cent to 27 per cent Students are paying more for their education then ever before.

High education costs are a source of significant unease among Canadians. According to a recent Harris/Decima poll, Canadians rank tuition fee reductions as the top priority for government investment in education. The poll also indicated that 91.7 per cent of people in Saskatchewan support reduced or frozen tuition fees.

Amid the federal funding cuts of the mid 1990s, provincial governments had added pressure to make up that funding gap. Despite steady increases in per full time equivalent student funding, between 1990-1991 and 2004-2005, the Saskatchewan government allowed tuition fees to triple, and universities and colleges to rely increasingly on private funding and increasing class sizes. In order to ensure a high quality accessible post-secondary education, government investment in operating and capital funding must continue to be made a priority by the Saskatchewan government.

Leadership Wanted: Freeze Tuition Fees

Since the early 1990s, students and families in Saskatchewan saw tuition fee increases of 182 per cent, which is one of the highest increases in the country, just behind Alberta and Ontario. In order to manage skyrocketing tuition fees, the provincial government froze tuition fees for the 2004-05 academic year, holding a five year long tuition fee freeze. Despite the majority of people in Saskatchewan support for the tuition fee freeze, the 2009 budget indicated increasing tuition fees and has been moving in that direction ever since.

This is a regressive policy shift that will only serve to increase the already exorbitant barriers to attending university or college, drive up student debt, and leave post-secondary institutions relying on unpredictable private funding. Stable and consistent government funding earmark for the core needs of Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions is the only way reduce tuition fees while still providing students a high quality education.