ANNA-LILJA DAWSON and DARYL HOFMANN

Breakdown of U of S undergraduate student fees in 2012-13.

Saskatchewan undergraduate students are shelling out more cash than ever before to go to school this year.

The latest numbers from Statistics Canada indicate that Saskatchewan’s undergraduate fees for 2012-13 are among the highest in Canada. On average, full-time undergraduates in the province paid $6,017 in tuition per year, compared to the national average of $5,581 and second only to $7,180 in Ontario.

Overall, Canadian universities saw an average five per cent rise in undergraduate tuition — more than three times the rate of inflation, which was 1.3 per cent between July 2011 and July 2012.

Tuition increased in all provinces with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, where undergraduate fees have been frozen at an average of $2,649 since 2003-04.

First-year engineering student Patrick Douville has yet to make his first tuition payment but is already concerned about pushing his limited budget into the red.

Undergraduate tuition at the University of Saskatchewan is up 4.75 per cent this year and is projected to continue rising each year until 2016.

“If you can’t find a summer job that pays well enough to cover [the extra] cost, you’ll have to take out a student loan that you will have to pay for long after you graduate,” Douville said. “It puts students in a bad position.”

University provost and vice-president academic Brett Fairbairn said tuition rates are reviewed annually by the Board of Governors and set to match the average of other medical-doctoral universities with similar programs and of similar size.

“When we are below that median, it means that other programs across the country may have more revenue to work with than we do,” he said. “In certain programs that actually leads to a competitive disadvantage.”

We need to recognize that the University of Saskatchewan isn’t the best university in Canada right now. And it’s not going to be unless we raise tuition. — Former USSU president Scott Hitchings

The budget framework that accompanies the university’s four-year third integrated plan projects a tuition increase of 5.2 per cent for 2013-14, and an additional 4.5 per cent jump in each of the following two years.

Fairbairn said the university does not expect its annual provincial operating grant to increase by more than two per cent per year and therefore predicts a need to raise tuition.

“We’re looking at an environment where we think tuition fees will likely go up a bit at our comparator institutions. So we’re projecting to remain relative to them,” he said. “But if tuition levels off at those institutions, then it would level off for us too in all likelihood.”

Tuition makes up 22.5 per cent of the annual budget and is the university’s largest source of revenue next to the provincial operating grant, which provides 70 per cent of revenue.

Fairbairn said that tuition does not make up for shortfalls in the budget during years of deficit. He said tuition is used to pay for campus infrastructure and faculty salaries, while deficits are addressed by cutting expenses.

The university is projecting a deficit for 2012-13 after receiving a smaller than requested operating grant from the provincial government in April.

“We get what we get with the government grant. We set tuition fees according to [comparable institutions] and when that leaves a problem in the university’s budget — which we will have for the next few years — then we work on that with other means,” Fairbairn said.

Former U of S students’ union president Scott Hitchings sat on the board during last year’s annual tuition review. He said tuition would have been raised regardless of the operating grant increase.

“Tuition still would have been increased if they had gotten the money they wanted from the government,” Hitchings said. “It would have been increased at a lower rate — closer to two or three per cent instead of four.”

Hitchings said the university is raising tuition each year in increments, rather than freezing tuition for a handful of years and then hiking it all at once. Raising the fees, he said, is necessary for better programming.

“We need to recognize that the University of Saskatchewan isn’t the best university in Canada right now. And it’s not going to be unless we raise tuition.”

Third-year engineering student Samuel Ferré is dealing with the 5.75 per cent increase that his college was hit with this year. He said he’s hoping to see more teaching assistants and help sessions.

“You’re paying that much more so you expect more,” he said.

Anurag Dalai is in his third year of pharmacology and physiology. He said he has yet to see any changes in his programs and believes that only students in their first and second years will benefit from the rise in tuition.

“You only give money because you think you are going to get back something,” Dalai said. “But we’re not sure what we’re getting back from it.”

Logan McManus is in her third year working towards an English degree. She’s also frustrated that the extra tuition she is shelling out is not trickling down to better her education.

“It kind of pisses me off,” McManus said. “There’s a lot less money going into [the humanities and fine arts] and yet we’re paying more money to go to school.”

Agriculture &
Bioresources
$5,948 • 4.13%

Business
$7,412 • 3.30%
[/fourcol_one] [fourcol_one]Education
$5,978 • 4.18%

Engineering
$7,699 • 5.73%

Kinesiology
$5,948 • 3.82%
[/fourcol_one] [fourcol_one]Law
$10,658 • 15.62%

Nursing
$6,269 • 4.63%

Nutrition
$6,455 • 4.18%

Pharmacy
$8,878 • 4.72%[/fourcol_one] [fourcol_one_last]Dentistry
$33,718 • 0.09%

Medicine
$14,649 • 7.32%

Veterinary
Medicine
$8,255 • 4.46%

Graduate Studies
$4,040 • 4.15%[/fourcol_one_last]

Percentage of U of S operating budget revenues in 2011-2012.

The debate over how the provincial government spends money to support post-secondary students is a contentious one.

The Saskatchewan Party government introduced a scholarship this year of up to $2,000 for grade 12 graduates who choose to stay in province to pursue post-secondary education. The government also gives university graduates that remain in Saskatchewan a tuition rebate of up to $20,000.

“Post-secondary education needs to be accessible and affordable for students,” Premier Brad Wall said to grade 12 students while visiting Mount Royal Collegiate June 14.

“Saskatchewan offers many opportunities, and it is our hope that the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship will encourage our high school graduates to continue their studies and build a future here in the province.”

But representatives from the Canadian Federation of Students say university students are paying enough as it is.

Average undergraduate tuition at the U of S 2012-2016.

“As a consequence of the provincial government’s budget, the University of Saskatchewan has been forced to offload costs onto students,” CFS Saskatchewan spokesperson Kent Peterson said in a press release Sept. 6. “Students are facing steep tuition fee increases despite a booming provincial economy and already record-high student debt.”

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UPDATE 09/19/2012 12:01 p.m.: an earlier version of this article stated that the U of S Students’ Union was a member of the Canadian Federation of Students. This was incorrect. The USSU left the CFS in 2009.

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Graphics: Samantha Braun/The Sheaf