You would be forgiven, over the past 24 months or so, for growing ever more confused about when tuition is “free” and when it is not. The reason, in part, is that “free” tuition is in the eye of the beholder. You’d think it would be as easy as saying “no fees”, but it’s actually not that simple. What if, instead of a fee, there is a variable “contribution” or a gradate tax? What if fees are charged to a
If you haven’t been hiding under a rock these last few months, you may have noticed that the US dollar is on a roll. And it’s not just on a roll in Canada, where the price of oil has reduced the value of our own currency; since mid-2014, the US dollar is up over 20% against a trade-weighted basket of currencies. This creates some interesting conundrums and strategy options for pricing international education. The change in the dollar’s status means that everyone’s
It’s that time again, when boards of governors are thinking about tuition for the upcoming year; and as a result, people will be rehearsing their arguments for and against tuition increases. The basic argument against is the rather simplistic, “higher fees means lower participation”. And it’s wrong. Here’s why: The argument essentially relies on that thing everyone remembers from first-year Econ, where you draw your first supply/demand curves. When price falls, demand rises; conversely, when price rises, demand falls. Therefore,
Whenever you hear somebody complaining about higher education funding in Canada, it’s usually only a matter of time before someone says “why can’t we be more like Scandinavia?” You know, higher levels of government funding, no tuition, etc., etc. But today let me tell you a couple of stories that may make you rethink some of your philo-Nordicism. Let’s start with Denmark. The government there is trying to rein public spending back in from a walloping 56% of GDP, and
I see that one of my favourite student groups, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Association (OUSA), has come out in favour of a tuition freeze. Fair enough; not many students endorse fee increases, after all. But the stated rationale for wanting one is a bit disappointing – mixing, as it does, poor historical analysis with poor generational politics. Here’s their thinking: In 1980, student contributions to university operating budgets in Ontario, which include tuition and fees, were only 18 per cent. In 2014, accounting
One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.
