(Halifax) – The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) is calling the agreement announced today between the Province of Nova Scotia the worst of its kind. Following two similar Memorandums of Understanding from previous governments that improved university funding and eventually froze and reduced tuition fees, the agreement announced today does the exact opposite.

“This move will make it nearly impossible for universities to provide the quality education students in Nova Scotia deserve,” said ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin.

Last year’s funding cut resulted in reductions of quality of teaching at universities across the province. This has affected students at the classroom level.

“More cuts will mean more of the same – larger class sizes, fewer instructors, and when vacancies appear, they won’t be filled or will be filled by low-wage part time instructors,” said Coffin.

Nova Scotia continues to be the only province in the country reducing funding to universities. To dampen the blow of lost government revenue, the province has loosened regulation on tuition increases at universities.

“This agreement gives the universities plenty of room to raise tuition fees above the three per cent cap the minister promised students last year,” said ANSSA Chair, Kyle Power.

The agreement states that tuition increases will be capped at three per cent annually, “pending the outcome of [a] Tuition Policy Review, which will include a review of tuition levels at comparable institutions.”

Students of Law, Dentistry and Medicine and International students will be subject to unregulated tuition increases for the next three years. There will also be discussions surrounding whether to remove the cap on tuition fee increases for students from other provinces within Canada.

The agreement maintains that the province and the universities will ensure “an accessible system of universities.”

“Considered as a whole, this MOU and other policies introduced by this government only make university education in Nova Scotia less accessible forall who seek it,” said Power.

While tuition will be increasing for the foreseeable future, the purchasing power of a Nova Scotia student loan has steadily declined since 2005. Last year, over 2,200 students on student loans were an average of $3,054 short of what they needed to pay for tuition, books, rent and groceries.

ANSSA will be asking the government to increase the cap on student assistance to ensure that the neediest students are able to afford to attend university.

A blog posting on the ANSSA website contains a detailed analysis of the MOU in plain language and can be accessed here: http://anssa.ca/blog/

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)

(Halifax) – The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA), representing over 35,000 university students across the province, welcomes amendments to the Municipal Elections Act that will make voting in municipal elections more accessible for youth. Municipal Relations Minister, John MacDonnell, introduced legislation today that would remove discriminatory language towards “unmarried students” from the municipal elections act.

The previous legislation dictated that an unmarried student could only vote at their family home during a municipal election. Under the old legislation, a student does not have the option of voting in the community where they live and study. The new legislation allows a student the option to choose where they vote – either at home or at school.

“Allowing students to choose whether or not they vote at home or at school is a huge step forward for making young people full and valued citizens within their communities,” says ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin.  “The old legislation made it very difficult for a young person to participate in local government, this legislation makes it much easier.”

“If the government is serious about encouraging youth participation in democracy, the obvious next step is to amend section 10 of the act so that the ‘ordinary polling day’ for municipal elections across the province happens at some point after December 1^st,” adds Coffin. “The unfortunate timing of elections in Nova Scotia still sends the message that young people should not be full participants in democracy.”

The current “ordinary polling day” is on the third Saturday in October. This means that anyone who is not ordinarily resident in a municipality prior to mid-July cannot vote in the municipal election.

Municipal elections in Nova Scotia always happen in mid-October, when most students aren’t eligible to vote. Additionally, every provincial election in the last 13 years has been held during the summer period, a time when a student’s residency is less certain than during the school year.

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For more information please contact:

Alex MacKeigan

Communications Officer

902.422.4068 * communications@anssa.ca

For Immediate Release: September 14^th 2011

(Halifax) – University students in Nova Scotia are returning to classes in the only Canadian province to reduce operating funding to universities this year. The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) released a report today to remind the government that public spending in post-secondary education is an investment with predictable economic and social returns, and not simply a cost to be contained.

A copy of the report will be sent to each member of the legislative assembly.

Key Points from the report

Social Impact

• Individuals with higher education are more likely to vote, volunteer, donate blood, give charitably, purchase earth friendly products, reduce their energy use and express openness to the opinions of other people.
• Individuals with higher education are less likely to be arrested, incarcerated or commit criminal offenses
• The cost of keeping a criminal in prison for two years ($204,000) is more than the government will ever spend subsidizing a citizen’s elementary, secondary and undergraduate education ($177,530).

Public Spending and Revenue Collection

• University degree holders made up just 22 per cent of the Canadian population in 2008, yet contributed 41 per cent of all income tax and received only 14 per cent of government transfers.

Health

• Individuals with higher education are more likely to report their health as very good or excellent and are more efficient in their use of health knowledge
• These individuals are less likely to smoke, have narcotics addictions, to be obese and are more likely to exercise.

Economic Impact

• Nova Scotia universities are responsible for an annual contribution of $968 million in gross domestic product, $227 million in tax revenue, $4.3 billion in economic output, $805.2 million in spending.
• Universities directly and indirectly support 17,000 jobs

Research

• Universities are the main research hubs in the region, attracting 61% of all research activity and more than $125 million in funding.
• Excellence in research allows Nova Scotian to attract top researchers, academics and business to the province to further develop the provincial economy.

Pull Quotes

“The benefits we’ve illustrated will only be realized if we maintain and improve the quality and accessibility of our university system. In cutting funding to education at every level, our government is starving the goose that lays the golden egg.

- Mark Coffin, Executive Director, ANSSA

“The government of Nova Scotia has the opportunity to improve the accessibility of the university system in Nova Scotia as they create a long term funding agreement and tuition policy over the next four months. A more educated Nova Scotia will be a healthier, safer, more law-abiding and more civically engaged Nova Scotia.”

-       Kyle Power, Chair, ANSSA

The report “ANSWERS: Higher education’s role as a catalyst for social and economic progress in Nova Scotia” is available here.

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The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

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Improvements to Student Aid a Positive Step, Program Still Requires Tweaking

(Halifax) – Students intending to fund their education with government student loans will graduate with less debt in the coming years. Student representatives from the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) are pleased with the spirit of this and other improvements to student assistance announced in Tuesday’s budget address.

The debt cap of $28,560 will be phased in incrementally over the next four years. It will apply only to new loans taken out and will take effect upon the successful completion of a student’s program of study.

A study from the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission released earlier this year revealed that 73 per cent of graduates in the Maritimes left their first degree with an average of $37,013 in debt. A third of these individuals borrowed $45,000 or more to study.

“A debt cap at this level will do a great deal to help students who would otherwise be graduating with a huge amount of debt,” says Mark Coffin, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations. “The slow phase in of the cap, and the completion criteria required to apply the cap are concerning, but nonetheless it is positive the government is moving in this direction.”

Other improvements in the student assistance program include the following:

a modest increase of weekly maximum assistance rates by $10/week

A doubling of the in-study earnings exemption on student loans from $50 to $100 per week

An increase in the textbook allowance, of $500 annually

Currently there are 2,275 students in Nova Scotia whose annual recognized need outweighs the maximum amount of available assistance by an average of $2,043. An additional ten dollars per week will do little to help these students as the cost of tuition and other goods continues to rise. Students across Nova Scotia had a collective unmet need of 4.65 million dollars in 2009.

“The announcements made about student assistance on Tuesday will, without a doubt, help students,” adds Coffin. “However, there is much more work needed improve student assistance.”

“We are hopeful the government will continue to cooperate with students to work towards our hope of having the best student assistance program in the country.”

In addition to student assistance reforms, ANSSA is hopeful that the government will take other measures to improve access to post-secondary education.

Early outreach programs like Pathways to Education and effective communication strategies about the nature of student assistance available are critical pieces of the puzzle as well. These tools are necessary to encourage first-generation post-secondary students and debt averse individuals to enroll.

Other items in the budget address included a previously announced four per cent cut in funding for the universities and permitting tuition to rise by up to three per cent for the foreseeable future.

ANSSA looks forward to participating in meetings to help shape the next funding agreement for universities that will span 2012 – 2015. Student representatives will be working to ensure the assistance measures announced Tuesday will not simply be used to cushion the blow of even greater tuition increases in future years.

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.433.4068 Email: ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

____________________________________________________________________________________

Students grade university announcement as incomplete, hopeful that a late submission will improve grades on accessibility

(Halifax) – Elected student representatives have mixed feelings about Tuesday’s announcement on tuition and university funding from the Minister of Advanced Education. Students are concerned about the decision to allow tuitions to increase, but hopeful that promised student assistance reforms will more than offset this increase for the province’s neediest students.

The government plan includes the removal of the tuition freeze introduced by the previous government and the introduction of a cap that will allow increases in tuition by up to three percent. There will be a 4 per cent cut to the universities’ operating grant, which equates to almost $ 14 Million in reduced funding, while the costs of operating a university continue to rise.

“Students will be expected to pay more into a system that continues to be underfunded by government,” says Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations Chairman, Rob LeForte. “Nova Scotia will continue to have the lowest per-student funding in Canada.”

The government has also renewed the provincial bursary program that, if lost, would have resulted in an additional 22 per cent jump in tuition fees for students originally from Nova Scotia.

“This is a significant investment from government that we hope to see continued, not just next year, but also in future years,” added LeForte.

The government reaffirmed their commitment to reform student assistance, after acknowledging this fall that the program is one of the weakest in the country. No firm details have been provided in this announcement, but student representatives have been assured a follow-up meeting will happen by the end of the month.

“The danger is in the unknown right now,” worries ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin. “We can’t say that students will be better served under this plan, but our hope is that the improvements will be generous enough that students will be more than protected from tuition increases by student aid improvements.”

“Right now Nova Scotia has one of the worst student assistance programs in North America and the most debt-ridden graduates in the country,” adds Coffin.

“Investments in universities and in programs that reduce student debt will make us more economically competitive as a province and make young people more likely to live, work and invest in our local economies. We can’t think of these investments as a cost to be contained as in other areas of government spending.”

Students are encouraged by the Minister’s commitment to invite students to discussions to develop the next three year funding arrangement for universities that will take effect in 2012.

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.422.4068 Email ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

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Government keeps O’Neill, leaves students in the dark

(Halifax) – The Nova Scotia government continues to pay for advice from Dr. Tim O’Neill, the author of a controversial report calling for unregulated increases in tuition fees. The government contracted the extended services of the former bank executive almost two months prior to the public release of his report on the university system. The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) has retrieved a copy of O’Neill’s contract through the government’s Routine Access Policy.

Representatives from ANSSA are angered at what appears to be the government’s silent adoption of the report’s recommendation to increase tuition fees.

“There has been a near universal rejection of O’Neill’s recommendations on tuition from students, faculty, and even some university administrators,” says ANSSA Chair, Rob LeForte. “Why is the government continuing to seek counsel from the author of a report that, if implemented, would have dire consequences for students and the province as a whole?

According to his contract, the major tasks expected of O’Neill between August and December are to provide advice on communication of his report’s findings and to act as an advisor for the preparation and negotiation of a new funding agreement with universities.

Between now and the beginning of April, the government is expected to negotiate a new agreement as the existing one will expire at the end of March. The current agreement provides adequate funding to freeze tuition for all students.

Student representatives held membership seats on the government steering committee that developed the current funding agreement, but students are wondering if they will continue to be a part of the process.

When asked about the issue in Question Period last Wednesday, Minister of Education, Marilyn More, gave no indication that students would be a part of the group negotiating the next funding agreement.

“It appears the government is more interested in working with Tim O’Neill than working with students,” observes Executive Director of ANSSA, Mark Coffin.

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.422.4068 Email ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

____________________________________________________________________________________

Students release response to O’Neill report on Universities

(Halifax) – The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA), representing over 35,000 university students, released an extensive 19 page report today responding to Economist Tim O’Neill’s review of the provinces universities. The report discusses and responds to each of the 10 recommendations made by O’Neill just over a month ago. While all recommendations are reviewed, spokespeople from ANSSA say that O’Neill’s recommendations on tuition fees remain the most concerning for students.

“O’Neill’s report on universities is a patchwork of poorly placed Band-Aid solutions based on the current economic situation,” says ANSSA Chair, Rob LeForte. “The report lacks long term vision.”

In the response, ANSSA provides extensive arguments against the deregulation of tuition fees. The report suggests that deregulating fees will not only limit access to university education but also make our universities uncompetitive on a national scale. ANSSA suspects that deregulation would quickly return us to our Education Policy Institute branded title of being the “least affordable jurisdiction in North America in which to pursue a university degree” from which we have only recently recovered.

The report supports O’Neill’s second recommendation – to increase the proportion of student assistance provided in non-repayable grants – but is critical of O’Neill’s omission of any projections or schedules on what a reformed student assistance program might look like. Without such specifics, it is difficult to consider the entirety of O’Neill’s recommendations.

O’Neill’s analysis of revealed his perception of the university system as a cost on society, rather than the investment it actually is, notes the report.

While tuition fees, university funding and student assistance are the most important areas for policy development noted by ANSSA, the remaining recommendations are vague and underdeveloped.

“The few sensible recommendations in the report just scratch the surface of the problems and don’t go nearly far enough,” adds ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin.

Students look forward to participating in the upcoming negotiations with the province and universities for the creation of a new funding agreement for universities as the existing agreement which created a three year tuition freeze expires this year.

The full report can be viewed here: .

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.422.4068 Email: ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

____________________________________________________________________________________

Students Launch TappedOut.ca to save tuition freeze

(Halifax) – Students across Nova Scotia are writing letters to government telling them that they are, quite simply, tapped out. A month ago, Economist Tim O’Neill recommended in his report to the premier that tuition fees be deregulated. The “Tapped Out” campaign, run by the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) is reaching out to students and making it easy for them to tell their provincial representatives that further tuition increases are not an option.

“A university education shouldn’t bleed you dry,” says ANSSA Chair, Rob LeForte.

In Nova Scotia, 69% of students graduate with an average of $31, 900 in debt. “The reality is that our students already have more debt than students anywhere else in the country, there’s no telling what might happen if fees increase,” LeForte added.

In 2006 the Education Policy Institute branded Nova Scotia as the least affordable jurisdiction in North America in which to pursue a university degree. The last three years have seen improvements for students and families struggling to pay for school.

“If our government follows Dr. O’Neill’s recommendations, we may end up back where we were four years ago,” worries ANSSA Executive Director, Mark Coffin.

“We’re asking for government to maintain the tuition freeze we have, and to increase grant funding that targets the students who need it the most,” Coffin explains.

While students recognize the fiscal realities the province is facing, Coffin notes that losing the tuition freeze will effectively turn part of the provincial debt into student debt. “This will only further burden one of the most economically unprepared class of citizens with more fees,” he says. ”Students just can’t handle more debt, we’re tapped out.”

Students and non-students alike can visit www.TappedOut.ca and submit a letter that will be sent to their MLA as well as the Education Minister.

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.422.4068 Email ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

____________________________________________________________________________________

Students to O’Neill: “A university education shouldn’t bleed you dry”

(Halifax) – Representatives of university students in Nova Scotia are concerned about an external review released Friday that has recommended the government allow unregulated tuition fee increases. The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) is concerned about the effect of further tuition fee increases on students in the province where the incidence of student debt is higher than anywhere else in Canada.

Students say the report fails to take into consideration several of the effects of an increase in tuition fees. They argue that tuition increases present a significant access barrier to students, specifically of low-income backgrounds. These fee increases will make our universities less competitive with those of other provinces’, further influencing the declining enrollment scapegoat upon which the fee increase proposal is a response to.

The Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation reports that 69% of students in Nova Scotia have an average of $31, 900 in debt at graduation. We now have a higher incidence and average debt load that any other province in Canada.

“Nova Scotia students can’t handle more debt,” explains Mark Coffin, Executive Director of ANSSA. “A university education shouldn’t bleed you dry.”

A survey of over 1,500 students conducted by ANSSA in 2009 indicated that students with over $26,000 in debt were 20 per cent more likely to leave the province after graduation than their less-burdened classmates.

“Further fee increases and greater debt will not only hold students back, but will also hold our province back as the population ages and we lose more young people,” added Coffin.

ANSSA will be presenting student concerns with the O’Neill report to Education Minister Marilyn More in an upcoming meeting. Given the NDP’s history of campaigning alongside students for a tuition freeze while in opposition, students would find any entertainment of the proposal for fee increases extremely uncharacteristic of the party.

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin Executive Director

Tel: 902.433.4068 Email: ed@anssa.ca

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations

2^nd Floor 1673 Barrington St. Halifax, NS B3J 1Z9. (902) 422-4068

____________________________________________________________________________________

Report confirms: lack of financial aid literacy widespread among students

(Halifax) – A report released today by student groups across the country reveals a massive gap in financial aid comprehension among Canadian students. The report, entitled “The Illiteracy of the Literate: The Lack of Financial Aid Knowledge among Canadian University Students,” examines the financial aid literacy of students (both borrowers and non-borrowers). Results indicate that 75% of the respondents, including 54% of upper-year government loan recipients failed the financial aid literacy test posed in the survey.

“Given that the overwhelming majority of students in Nova Scotia go into debt to fund their post-secondary education, this is very concerning,” said Mark Coffin, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA). “This is causing students a range of difficulties, from students who are unprepared and uninformed about their repayment responsibilities on one end, to their reluctance or failure to take advantage of student assistance programs on the other end.”

Canada’s student financial aid system is one of the most complicated and complex financial tools available, aimed at helping one of the least financially savvy demographics in Canada. This report supports the students groups’ previous claims that the system is far too complex, and demonstrates a severe lack of financial aid literacy that needs to be addressed.

In 2009, 64% of undergraduates completing studies in Nova Scotia reported accumulating debt. The average student with debt had accrued $30,128 in debt throughout the course of their degree.

“In Nova Scotia, where debt is so widespread among students, governments can do much more to make enhancements, such as increasing exposure to the most effective sources of financial aid information and improving the quality of resources, so that the full potential of our financial aid system and our students can be reached,” added Rob LeForte, Chair of ANSSA.

This is the third and final report stemming from a nationwide survey conducted in fall term of the 2009-10 academic year. The “Canadian Student Survey” was a bilingual, multi-institutional survey conducted on university campuses across the country. It was commissioned by the Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA), the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), and the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS).

“The Illiteracy of the Literate: The Lack of Financial Aid Knowledge among Canadian University Students” report can be found in full here: http://www.casa-acae.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Canadian-Student-Survey-The-Illiteracy-of-the-Literate-June-2010.pdf

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For More Information Please Contact:

Mark Coffin, Executive Director

Tel: 902.422.4068 Email ad@anssa.ca