Letter to the Fulcrum Editor
The University of Ottawa student newspaper

Tuesday, September 28th 2004



To whom it may concern:

I am responding to Jeff MacCharles' article, "Defrosting tuition",
in the September issue of the Fulcrum - in particular - the comment
made by Jesse Greener of the Canadian Federation of Students
(CFS), "the fact that we are the lowest funded province per 
capita in post-secondary education in the country points to 
the need for increased funding ... .", and the allegation that 
Ontario universities face a $1.74 billion infrastructure debt.

In the latter case of the $1.74 billion infrastructure debt, where is the 
"supporting" evidence? 

And in the former case regarding Ontario being the lowest funded
post-secondary education province per capita, maybe there is an 
economy of scale effect at work from having such a huge student 
population that makes post-secondary education cheaper, here, in 
Ontario than in the other provinces.

THE *PROBLEM* is this: students attending colleges+universites in
Canada *canNOT* figure out for themselves if what they pay in terms
of tuition if fair or if they are being SCAMMED by the System.

There was a time when college tuition in Ontario was have that of any
university. *NOW* they are both on par. College+university students
pretty much pay the SAME TUITION FEES.

What's worse is that students in the "professional programs" like
law, nursing, engineering+medicine are being made to PAY FULL
TUITION FEES. Yet, they have NO WAY of knowing it what they
pay in the way of tuition if FAIR+REASONABLE.

To make matters worse, there are COMPULSORY! STUDENT
FEES that are *ADDED* to the tuition fees for use of the sports
facility, for student union activities, the student rag (newspaper),
etc.

There was also a time when "international students" paid *REGULAR*
tuition fees. TODAY, foreign students whose tuition fees are *NOW*
UNREGULATED can pay $25,000 per semester fees or MORE! 

(I've even heard of foreign business students paying $35,000 per
semester in an MBA program.)

ADDING TO THE CONFUSION, NO ONE seems to know who 
owns the colleges+universities as they are private entities.

ADDING TO THE CONFUSION, Government funding of colleges+
universities is based on several factors: there's the PER CAPITAL
amount they receive, *BUT* they can receive MUCH MORE EXTRA!
$$$ for diverse reasons like if it's a bilingual institution or *NOT*
Whether it's involved in research and technology or *NOT* If it has
business partnerships or *NOT* etc.

The terms+conditions attached to the EXTRA money ALWAYS!
is CONFIDENTIAL.

Such SECRECY! makes it IMPOSSIBLE! for students to figure 
out if the tuition they're paying is FAIR+REASONABLE.

PLUS! colleges+universities will use a policy of PAY SECRECY 
to COMPLICATE! MATTERS.