On subsidizing university tuition

By: Mia Kibel

Maybe your parents pay for your tuition, and maybe they don’t. Maybe you get subsidies from OSAP, maybe you work, or maybe you subsist off a diet of air, cheetos, and pirated videos. But the fact remains that any way you slice it, university isn’t free, and students are the ones that have to find a way to pay.

University is never actually going to be free. Professors, campuses, and programs are always going to cost money. It is, however, worth questioning whether students should be the ones to pay. Germany, for example, recently decided that we shouldn’t. At the beginning of October, university became completely free in all German states, not only for German students, but for foreign students as well. So, if you can get a German visa, Auf Wiedersehen, and enjoy. But can university be free in Canada, and should it?

The rationale for making university entirely subsidized by the government is obvious, and it feels good in the gut. More education is a social good. On a macro level, a more educated population can drive innovation and development across all sectors the university touches, in areas as diverse as business, science, law, and the arts. For individuals, university education opens doors to careers that are typically more profitable and stable, and gives them the tools to specialize in areas that interest them, not to mention the simple implicit value of learning new things and ideas. Tuition fees make it harder for a large segment of the population, typically those that are simultaneously disenfranchised, to access these benefits. They restrict university education to the rich, thereby setting up a cycle where only those who already have money can access the jobs best suited to making money.

Though students can take out loans to pay fees, the interest that kicks in as soon as you graduate means that university costs more for poor students than it does for rich ones. When students do decide to take out loans to pay for school, the interest can be crippling, and an uncertain job market makes it difficult to determine when or if the loan can be paid back.

If we believe that education isn’t an elitist privilege and that see that loans aren’t an equitable, or even necessarily viable, way for poorer students to pay for school, it seems like moving towards a system like Germany’s is the obvious choice. But a closer look at Germany’s system reveals that, while completely subsidized university education is possible, it’s not exactly compatible with our university system. German university students mostly attend institutions in or near their hometowns, so university residences are extremely limited. Most classes are large lectures, not the small group discussion based classes that become so rewarding in upper years. While “university” here is an institution replete with amenities, German schools are, for the most part, just classes. Think about Mac without DBAC, the student centre, big sports teams, four libraries with support staff, and all the other things that happen outside of class, then consider what a “free” school would look like.

As it stands, universities are already heavily subsidized. Only 25.9 percent of university and college revenue in Ontario comes from tuition fees. And with budgets tightly stressed, both in universities and in governments, it’s clear that fully subsidizing schools as they are isn’t really an option for Canada. Trimming down universities might not be such a bad thing— in fact, it might a good one. But, the next time you hear someone proclaim they’re off to the vaterland, use those critical thinking skills you’re paying so much for to decide whether “free” is a price you’re willing to pay.