Undergrads in Saskatchewan and across the country are paying way more than the inflation rate in tuition hikes this year.
Statistics Canada reports full-time students paid an average of 4.3 per cent more in tuition this fall than they did last year, when tuitions rose four per cent.
The University of Regina has capped tuition increases at three per cent a year. The average undergraduate student at the university currently pays about $5,500 a year in tuition and fees.
By contrast, inflation was 2.7 per cent between July 2010 and July 2011.
Tom Chase, provost and academic vice-president at the U of R, says the tuition increase is a reflection of rising costs.
"If you look at it in an international context and compare it to what is going on in the U.K., the United States, New Zealand and Australia, where tuition has skyrocketed…we in Saskatchewan are very fortunate," Chase said.
"We have among the most affordable increases in any jurisdiction in the west."
According to the report, Saskatchewan saw the highest increase in graduate fees for international full-time students at 11 per cent.
Chase notes that the equipment used by many graduate students is often expensive and costly to maintain.
"We have recognized that graduate tuition needs, perhaps, to reflect just a little bit more of the actual cost of that education," Chase said.
"If we see a student coming in from outside Canada, we're asking those students to bear a little bit more of the actual cost."
Canadian graduate students paid an average of $5,599 in tuition fees for the 2011-12 academic year, up 3.7 per cent.
With files from The Canadian Press
