Post-secondary students will see education costs rising this semester.
Classes at the University of Regina started on Wednesday. According to Statistics Canada, tuition is increasing across the country — and the U of R is no exception.
New data shows costs for undergrad students are up 3.3 per cent this year. Graduate students are looking at a 2.4 per cent increase.
In Saskatchewan, the data shows an even higher jump of 3.7 per cent for undergrads and 5.6 per cent for grad students.
The U of R raised its costs back in May by an average of 2.8 per cent, leaving students with mixed feelings.
“I’m happy to be here, so it doesn’t affect me too much,” said second-year student Talia Fawcett. “Obviously, I’d like tuition to be lower, but what can you do?”
“Sometimes it can be get a little nerve-racking dealing with money and stuff,” Trista Kennett, also a second-year student, said. “But, I guess you have to pay for it, you can’t really negotiate it down.”
University administration say the Statistics Canada data is slightly skewed, since there are fewer post-secondary options in Saskatchewan than the rest of the country.
“If you total the enrollment at the University of Regina, the University of Saskatchewan and even throw in the Sask Polytechnic for good measure, that’s still even smaller than the University of Toronto,” Thomas Chase, Provost and VP of Academic, said.
Chase also said pricier courses drive up the entire average.
“A small number of fairly high-cost programs such as medicine and dentistry and so on tends to skew the average for the province upward,” he said.
The U of R says it tries to keep tuition increases to a minimum, but fews have steadily gone up over the last few years.
Based on a report by CTV Regina's Cole Davenport
