More students than ever before are attending university for post-secondary education — and more students are also graduating with massive amounts of debt. Have universities become accessible at the expense of being affordable for students?

In the 21st century, the bachelor’s degree has become the new high school diploma. Employers nowadays require applicants to have a minimum bachelor’s education in order to even get a foot in the door in the job market, never mind actually landing a job. Therefore, the majority of post-secondary students choose to pursue university because it seems it is the only way to get a job.

Subsequently, a record number of students are also graduating with large amounts of student debt. According to a survey done by the Bank of Montreal, average Canadian student debt is at $26,300, which is a massive amount for a young person to take on.

The legislated student debt ceiling in the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act also hit its maximum of $15 billion in 2010, meaning the total amount of student loans owed to the Federal Government of Canada reached — and now in 2015 exceeds — that number. This doesn’t take into account provincial loans, student lines of credit and bank loans that students take out to cover university costs.

Many students choose to take on this debt because they assume that it will help secure a job in the long term. The numbers tell a different story: the unemployment rate in the 15-24 age bracket is a staggering 13.6 per cent as of May 2014, compared to the overall national average of 6.8 per cent of total unemployment reported in January 2015. Statistics Canada also reports that one in four Canadians in the same age bracket are in jobs that do not require their degree qualifications at all.

Now this is where the chorus of, “Well, maybe if they didn’t want to be a full-time Starbucks barista, they shouldn’t have gotten an English degree!” chimes in, but rest assured, science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors suffer from unemployment just as much as others. Young people going into nursing, education — hell, even law graduates — are having a hard time finding jobs and subsequently unburdening themselves of the massive debt they have had to take on.

Student debt is also a motivating factor for the 70 per cent of high school graduates that will not be pursuing a post-secondary education — whether it be university or a polytechnic institution. According to a 2013 report by the Canadian Federation of Students, people “from marginalized communities, low income backgrounds and single parents are more likely to be strongly adverse to accumulating student debt.”

This is a sad fact, considering these are the people that institutions of higher education can help the most with concern to bettering their situations. Post-secondary education is not affordable, therefore not accessible to them.

In that same report, the CFS/FSEE outlines the risks to students graduating with student debt. In addition to potential financial ruin, around 14 per cent of graduates defaulted on their federal student loans within three years of graduation. Students that have high debt may suffer from stress, tension, anxiety and interrupted sleep schedules and completion rates of their studies decrease.

Student debt even affects career paths. In a survey done in 2013 by the CFS/FSEE of medical and law students across Canada, many students graduating from those programs were seeking jobs in fields that were not necessarily their first or second choices because they would help pay off their student loans faster.

This is certainly apparent in the Canadian medical system, as we see fewer medical graduates going into family medicine and instead choosing other, higher paying areas in the medical field. Even lawyers are stepping away from taking on more public service or pro bono work, doing the minimum amounts necessary.

In the end, it seems that education is neither wholly accessible or affordable for many young Canadians. But really, what other options are there for us? Just like university isn’t for everyone, neither is polytechnics.

Maybe it’s time governments actually invest in education instead of giving out tax credits that only help students who don’t have any debt. And maybe it’s time for universities to help steer their students onto a more productive path for post-secondary education, instead of churning them through the system and sucking out all their money.