Students struggle to pay tuition, government struggles with solutions

Written by Mark Coffin, Executive Director of ANSSA

Originally posted September 17 2009

Provincial politicians head back to the legislature today, at the same time as forty thousand students settle into university classrooms across Nova Scotia. Both groups are likely unprepared for the challenges that lie ahead. The recession has hit students and universities hard. Endowments are growing slower, meaning less operating revenue for institutions and fewer bursaries and scholarships for underprivileged students[1]. The unemployment rate for students aged 19 – 24 reached 21 per cent in July 2009, the highest rate on record since 1977[2], which happens to be when Statistics Canada started recording student unemployment. And since our new government has taken office, no changes have resulted to help students through this tough time.

Judging from the front page of their website, the governing NDP will claim that youth are their top priority. However, they have only one proposal to invest in youth: a hefty tax credit for university and college students who stay in the province after graduation. A credit that will reward students at the wrong end of a degree that too many cannot afford to begin with. A credit that government expects will make staying here more appealing than it currently is. A credit whose creators naively assume will be accompanied by an increase in the currently sparse job opportunities to accommodate the students who are so eager to stay in order to take advantage of it. And lastly, a credit that is likely drastically under-budgeted for if it were to ever come even close to working, which it won’t.

Governments in Manitoba and New Brunswick have invested 100 Million dollars in such tax credits. Yet, no changes in retention rates have been observed since the credits were implemented[3]. Rather than learning from their mistakes, our government wants to spend 6.5 Million dollars on, as Alex Usher says, “providing windfall gains to people doing exactly what they were going to do anyways”[4] while failing to retain graduates and failing to make education any more accessible.

Despite their campaign that promised “change”, this type of policy is simply an amplified archetype of the previous government’s own failed tax tactic. Why not invest these millions of dollars into something more useful? Why not improve access by directing this funding towards student grants or tuition reductions that will save students money now.

We’re asking government to change their approach, to lower tuition in order to keep youth from fleeing to Newfoundland for a more affordable education. We’re asking government to promise that no student is denied the right to a higher education for financial reasons alone. Students want the option to stay in Nova Scotia, but tax-credit or not, the opportunities for post-grad employment are scarce. If our government is serious about retaining graduates, they should focus on shaping and strengthening the knowledge economy that will both stimulate development and innovation within Nova Scotia, but also attract and retain young workers. For the success of our students, the sustainability of our institutions, and the prosperity of our province, our government should get to work.