Alexander CookTuition is expensive and can be daunting for students. But it’s even more expensive and complicated for international students. International students pay about $140,000 in tuition for a four-year undergraduate degree, depending on their program, with an average yearly tuition cost of over $35,000 per academic year. That doesn’t include the cost of rent, food, and other necessities. Currently, they pay their tuition in four instalments breaking down to an average of $8,500 per instalment. In comparison, domestic students pay around $7,000 for the entire academic year.
The University of Alberta Students Union (UASU) has proposed that the university change international students’ payment instalments from four a year to six. This policy change is meant to alleviate some of the monetary struggles that international students often face. They have to deal with fluctuating exchange rates and regularly paying large sums of money at a time, among other challenges. With that, this policy change could allow students to focus on school rather than stressing over money and payment deadlines. However, more needs to change to truly help international students.
As everyone knows, the cost-of-living has gone up significantly over the past few years. Additionally, the U of A has proposed a 10 per cent increase to international tuition for students beginning their degrees in fall 2026. And the university has been consistently raising international students’ tuition since 2015. This has resulted in the pockets of international students being exponentially and unfairly stretched. Some may say that international students can just go get a job. However international students are only allowed to work 24 hours a week at an off-campus job. Though they could hypothetically get an on-campus job if they needed to work more hours, there’s a limited amounts of paid on-campus jobs.
This, combined with Alberta’s low provincial minimum wage and the rising cost-of-living, has been a perfect storm to create financial insecurity for many international students. Students should be able to focus on their studies. But with the financial pressures international students are facing, it’s not so easy for them. If international students paid their tuition in six instalments, it would at least allow them to pay smaller amounts at a time.
Clearly, international students absolutely need this policy amendment. But so does our economy. International students help keep Canada’s economy afloat. In 2022 alone, the Government of Canada estimated international students spent a total of $37.3 billion, including tuition. Not only do they contribute greatly to the economy, but international students also create many jobs for Canadians. Therefore it should be undeniably clear that we should be making life easier for international students. Considering how instrumental they are to our economy, we could make this simple change to reduce an unnecessary roadblock.
That said, this is merely a band-aid solution to a larger institutional issue. Although I believe the change proposed by the UASU is absolutely necessary, it’ll only fix a small handful of issues faced by international students. To truly help international students, we need to cap tuition increases for international students and lower it across the board. They are not receiving an education that is five times better than that of domestic students, so I see no justifiable reason for their tuition to be five times more than a domestic student’s. We, as a student body, need to open up more dialogue about inflated international student fees and condemn our institution for prioritizing profit over student well-being.
