International Students' Association

The University of Alberta Students’ Union Response to the International Student Tuition Fee Proposal

The University of Alberta Administration has put forward a proposal to increase international student tuition by 5%. The combined base tuition and international differential fee increases for international students will be between $934.80 and $1,645.20 depending on a student’s program of study. For many international students this is an unaffordable increase in fees that is not supported by the University of Alberta Students’ Union.

Get Involved

Show your concern to the Board of Governs: The final decision for the proposal will be made by the Board of Governors on Friday, Dec 13th in ETLC E6-060 at 8:00AM. We will have cookies, hot chocolate and coffee starting at 7:30AM so that students can show our concerns one last time to board members as they enter the meeting room. Visit our page on facebook for more information

Grab a bag tag: Visit Infolink locations or the Students' Union office to grab one of our red price tags. The red price tags for back packs symbolize another way that the Provincial cuts to post-secondary education have been placed on the backs of students.

Send a letter to Doug Goss, Chair of the Board of Governors: Visit the link on the left of the page to send a message to the Board of Governors to let them know that you are concerned with this tuition increase!

Our Responses to Arguments for Increasing International Students’ Tuition

From the Administration’s proposal, comments within committees and previous statements, the Students’ Union has identified two overarching reasons that have been given for this proposal:

1) Addressing Budgetary Shortfalls

Within the tuition proposal the Administration makes it clear that—facing a potential zero percent increase in funding from the Provincial government—they are exploring all possible mechanisms to increase revenue. International tuition, as unregulated by the government, is the option that they are pursuing with this proposal. The Students’ Union is worried that with plans like this, international students are starting to be viewed more as an avenue to increase revenues than as valued members of the university community.

It has been argued that the 5% increase for international students’ tuition is meant to cover the growth of costs to educating a student. Within this argument domestic student tuition would also increase, limited only by Provincial regulation. There are two major problems with this line of argument.

First, there has been little done to demonstrate how the cost to educate an individual student increases by 5% each year. A proposal that will see costs increase for some students by between approximately $900 and $1645 should provide details into the items that the increase will fund. Second, any discussion of cost increases should detail how the funds raised will maintain or improve the experience for students.

2) Existing Underpayment

In lieu of greater details around how this increase is going to fund cost pressure related to educating students, there has been an argument that students and particularly international students are not fully funding the cost of their education. This claim, however, is problematic for a number of reasons. First, similarly to the above, the cost to educate a student is not included in the proposal. It is hard to argue if international students are fully funding their education without an understanding of how much it costs to educate them.

The U of A should rationalize what proportion of operating expenditures are used for educating undergraduate students, and delineate how these expenditures are predicted to increase by 5%. The Administration should further explain how expenditure increases within their control are the responsibility of international students to fund.

Students’ Union Concerns with Administration’s Proposal

Beyond the concerns with the proposal’s rationale discussed above, the Students’ Union has some serious overall concerns with the proposal.

1) Lack of Details

For a proposal that will have serious impacts on students at the University of Alberta, proponents have provided few details. We believe a proposal for a fee of this size should include a deeper understanding of how the increased funding will be allocated, how the increase will maintain or improve services to students and what measures will be taken to assist students struggling to afford the increase on their tuition.

2) Lack of Consultation

While the President’s Executive Committee (operations) endorsed this proposal on October 31, students did not see the proposal or any drafts of the proposal until November 7. This is the day that the proposal was sent out with the November 13 Academic Planning Committee materials and the administration called student representatives to inform them. The proposal was then briefly discussed at the Tuition Budget Advisory Committee on November 12.

Students have requested greater clarity and involvement in the discussions concerning international students’ tuition, as this proposal appears to have been an option under consideration for quite some time. However, no indication that this proposal would be coming forward was provided to students at the two budget consultations with Students’ Council or at the numerous Budget Advisory Committee meetings this year. One has to question the validity and purpose of these meetings if a proposal of this magnitude or its previous iterations did not come forward for discussion. It appears to the Students’ Union that either student feedback was not wanted, or this proposal was rushed into existence.

3) Impact on Affordability

International students leave their homes to join our community at great financial and emotional expense. Many international students can barely rely on financial assistance and work during their studies to fund the cost of their education – due to them, for instance, not qualifying for government financial aid and part-time international students being barred from working off-campus.

For many students, their scholarships and funding will not increase to meet the new costs. This means that major, unplanned increases to a student’s costs can be difficult or impossible to fully fund. This unexpected cost increase for international students will have major implications for some students, including reducing or eliminating their ability to visit home, increasing their debt load, forcing them to work longer hours instead of focusing on their studies and—for some—causing them to leave their programs before completing their degrees.

4) Impact on Student Success

From consulting with a wide-array of students, it is clear that the international students’ tuition increase will have a negative impact on many students’ academic success. For instance, some students may take on longer employment hours, reducing their ability to study. Others may refrain from purchasing mandatory course reading materials, making academic success difficult. Mental health will suffer as they worry about funding their education and maintaining needed scholarships. As well, students taking on work, seeking added sources of funding and having difficulty with their classes may take longer to complete the credits necessary to graduate.

5) Lasting Impact on Student Impressions

An important component of student recruitment is the image of the institution that students bring back to their home communities. This proposal lacks input from students, an understanding of how the new money will be spent, and an explanation of how students struggling to afford the increase will be assisted. Clearly, it will have an impact on the impression that international students have of their institution.

One message that the Students’ Union has heard consistently from international students since this proposal has become public is that they do not feel respected as members of their university community, but instead think that they are simply seen as a monetary solution to budgetary shortfalls. Furthermore, a fair number of international students have stated that they are contacting not only family and friends abroad about their negative experience with this tuition increase, but also diplomatic offices and high schools. The increase in international students’ tuition represents an institutional reputational risk from abroad, which is something that is difficult to repair once the damage is done—especially as the institution expands its international recruitment efforts.

Phone

780-492-4241

Email
jonathan.olfert@su.ualberta.ca

Students' Union Executive and Administrative Offices
Room 2-900
Students' Union Building
University of Alberta
8900 - 114 Street NW
Edmonton, AB
T6G 2J7