(Halifax) – Students are demanding the Minister of Advanced Education, Marilyn More,  reveal her plan for reaching her repeatedly stated commitment of keeping tuition at or below the national average. During a press conference held last week, the Minister admitted the government could not guarantee her promise of a cap on tuition increases beyond next year.

In March of last year, More sent a letter to the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) promising a three per cent cap on tuition increases “for 2011-12 and subsequent years.”

“Throughout six months of negotiations, we were told by senior government officials that tuition increases would be capped at three per cent a year,” said ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin. “The agreement announced last week breaks this commitment and was loaded with language that creates many exceptions and opportunities for tuition to increase beyond the cap and very few rules.”

The likely outcomes of the agreement do not reflect the government’s stated commitment to keep tuition at or below the national average. Several components of the government’s plan lead ANSSA to believe the commitment will not be achieved:

• The Nova Scotia Government does not appear to be basing it’s projections of the national average for tuition on what’s happening with tuition policy in other parts of Canada. The Government of Ontario, Canada’s largest province, is promising tuition reductions of thirty per cent to over 300,000 university and college students. This will make the national average significantly lower than otherwise projected
• The Minister’s inability to guarantee a cap on tuition increases beyond next year equates to an inability to maintain the commitment to keeping tuition at the national average
• Graduate tuition fees remain more expensive in Nova Scotia universities than any other province in Canada. ANSSA is asking for more specificity on the government’s commitment to maintain tuition at or below the national average and to which programs and students it will apply.
• Lack of regulation on fees for students in dentistry, law and medicine programs will mean that tuition and other fees for those programs may grow well above the national average.
• The “tuition policy review” mandated by the agreement lays the groundwork for tuition increases in programs that are currently below the market average for their program type, as well as further tuition increases for out of province students.

“We are asking the Minister to show us her plan to keep tuition at or below the national average,” said Kyle Power, ANSSA Chair. “Nothing we have seen suggests that she is serious about keeping this commitment to Nova Scotians who are depending on her honesty and leadership.”

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan advocacy group representing the interests of over 80% of Nova Scotian university students.  We are over 35,000 students at Cape Breton, Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, Acadia and St. Francis Xavier Universities and the Atlantic School of Theology. We are the largest student organization in Atlantic Canada.

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For more information please contact:

Mark Coffin

Executive Director

902.422.4068 (w)