Students will be protesting rising tuition in post-secondary institutions on Thursday, April 14 at the Minister of Advanced Education's office in Burnaby.
The protest is organized by Tuition Freeze Now, a coalition of several student groups including the Teaching Support Staff Union and the Graduate Student Society at Simon Fraser University, Educational Workers Union at the University of Victoria and CUPE 2278 — the union for teaching assistants and English language instructors at UBC.
The rally will begin at the Metrotown SkyTrain station at 12:30 p.m. and make its way to Minister of Advanced Education Anne Kang’s office. The principal demand of the protest is a tuition freeze, which would mean no increases on tuition rates for all post-secondary students in BC.
A province-wide tuition freeze was implemented in 1996, but was lifted after six years because of it being “not realistic,” according to the Advanced Education Minister at the time. The government then instituted a tuition limit policy in 2005, which restricts annual increases to two per cent. However, this does not apply to international student tuition, which rose by 7.1 per cent for the average student in Canada during the 2020/21 school year.
Despite consistent student opposition, UBC has continued to raise tuition by two to four per cent every year. This year was no exception, with the Board of Governors voting to approve the increases in early April despite 90 per cent of student participants indicating in a survey that they are opposed.
Cole Evans, president of the AMS, said in a statement that the AMS “has no plans to be involved in the protest” but will continue advocating for policies like the Affordability Plan which seeks to assess the state of student affordability at UBC and implement changes to make the university more affordable.
“We are committed to continuing our advocacy here at UBC to limit tuition increases and ensure UBC students are getting the most affordable university experience possible,” Evans said.
University students across Canada are facing heightened financial pressures as a result of high inflation on necessities like food and rent, coupled with a precarious labour market.
Phyllis Pearson, president of CUPE 2278 and one of the organizers of the protest, said she is just one of many people who are frustrated with the tuition engagement process and who wish that the university would listen to students.
“What we've been hearing from our members is that rising cost of living is just making things really hard and tuition increasing is a part of that,” Pearson said.
Pearson also pointed out that any wage increases that the union is able to negotiate for teaching assistants would be meaningless if their tuition also increases.
In addition to a tuition freeze, protestors are also calling for increased government funding to universities in order to subsidize the freeze as well as a commitment to conducting a commission to study “the feasibility of providing free post-secondary education for all.”
The BC government announced in March that it will be conducting a review of how it funds post-secondary institutions, which would assess the extent to which decreased government funding plays a role in increased tuition.
Pearson called on all students to get on board with the cause.
“I think solidarity on this issue is really what's going to be required to see some change.”