Press Releases

(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)

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