International students’ cost rising

Alberta’s international undergraduate students experienced the highest jump in education costs over the past year, with the province-wide increase set at 18.9 per cent compared to domestic students’ 4 per cent for the same time period, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

But luckily, the University of Alberta has kept the tuition increase for international students on par with that of domestic students said Students’ Union Vice President (External) Beverly Eastham.

“From our experience here at the U of A we haven’t seen nearly this much of a jump but it is quite alarming to see that jump for a provincial average,” she said.

Relating to the exchanges that Students’ Union representatives have had with the University’s Budget Advisory Committee, the vice president stated that keeping tuition affordable for everyone is a prime concern.

“We’re working in those discussions to make sure that things are even across the playing field and that none of those students is being hit harder than another,” Eastham said.

While domestic students’ fees are regulated according to the Consumer Price Index, which allows for tuition increases to follow inflationary trends, no such mechanism exists for international students’ tuition rates.

“International students are certainly an area where we are being vigilant because there isn’t any legislation in place to regulate their tuition and we want to make sure that it’s not just used as a really easy way to get more money,” Eastham remarked.

While higher tuition is a cause of concern for most students, the people involved in the recruiting and retaining of international students don’t necessarily perceive the increase negatively.

According to the International Student Services’ associate director Kumarie Achaibar-Morrison, the jump in tuition across the province for international students is actually a sign that our educational institutions are improving, becoming more competitive and having more to offer on the global scale.

“We’re finally getting our act together and saying ‘There is excellent Canadian research going on, excellent experiences that students have at our institutions, this is what we can offer the world.’ That wasn’t something that we did 10 or 20 years ago,” Achaibar-Morrison stated.

Despite tuition increases, undergraduate education in Canada continues to be more affordable for international students than other education destinations such as the United States, Britain, or even Australia, with average fees for a full-time international undergraduate being around $18,000 at the U of A.

The International Student Services associate director also pointed to the federal government’s off-campus work permit program to show why international students are getting the most out of their experience in our institutions.

“Not only do we offer an A-class quality education, but we’re also looking at how best to make students successful academically. One of the things that we find important is that international students can get work experience to either augment what they’re doing academically, or to provide them with the foundation to be more successful candidates in the future workplace,” Achaibar-Morrison explained.

It would thus seem that tuition increases happening in the province are the result of a growing self-awareness among Albertan institutions that see their competitiveness augmented on the international scale and want to continue improving their reputation.

“We also recognize that we want to give the best that we can and that the only way that people will come to us is if the quality of what we’re giving is superior,” Achaibar-Morrison affirmed.