[lorend]

Statistics Canada released their findings for the average tuition costs throughout Canada recently, and the results are quite surprising:

Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs this fall paid 4.0% more on average in tuition fees for the 2010/2011 academic year than they did a year earlier. This increase is slightly higher than the one for 2009/2010, when tuition fees rose 3.6%.

On average, undergraduate students paid $5,138 in tuition fees in 2010/2011 compared with $4,942 a year earlier.

In comparison, inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index increased 1.8% between July 2009 and July 2010.

As was the case in 2009/2010, tuition fees rose in all but three provinces. Fees remained unchanged in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, while, for a third year in a row, fees declined in Nova Scotia (-4.5%). Elsewhere, tuition fee increases ranged from 1.5% in Alberta to 5.4% in Ontario.

On average, undergraduate students in Ontario paid the highest fees ($6,307) in Canada, followed by students in New Brunswick who paid average university tuition fees of $5,516.

Canadian graduate students face greater increase than undergrads

At the national level, graduate students faced larger tuition fee increases than did undergraduate students.

On average, they paid 6.6% more than in 2009/2010, compared with an increase of 4.0% for undergraduate students. Graduate students paid an average of $5,182 in tuition fees for the current year, which is slightly more than the amount paid by undergraduate students.

Fees for graduate students were up in six provinces. Increases ranged from 1.6% in Alberta to 10.6% in Ontario. In contrast, fees were down in four provinces, with decreases varying from a decline of 0.1% in Newfoundland and Labrador to a drop of 4.6% in Nova Scotia. Graduate students in Nova Scotia paid the highest fees ($7,350), followed by students in Ontario and British Columbia, who paid $6,917 and $6,353 respectively.

MBA programs are the most expensive among graduate programs

At the graduate level, the most expensive programs were the executive Master of Business Administration (MBA), with tuition fees of $28,773, and the regular MBA program, at $21,118.

Among all programs for graduate students, veterinary medicine (+2.3%) was the one with the smallest increase from 2009/2010 to 2010/2011, followed by education (+2.8%).

The largest increases were recorded in dentistry (+34.8%) and other health, parks, leisure and fitness (+28.5%)

International students paying more

Nationally, the average tuition fees for foreign undergraduate students was $16,768 in 2010/2011, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year.

Nationally, this increase in tuition fees for foreign undergraduate students was smaller than that of the previous year (+7.1%), and changes in tuition fees ranged from a decrease of 0.3% in Nova Scotia to a rise of 9.5% in Saskatchewan.

International full-time students in graduate programs faced an average fee increase of 5.9% in 2010/2011, paying $12,368. While fees increased in most provinces, they edged down (-0.1%) for international students in New Brunswick and remained unchanged in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Additional compulsory fees on the rise

The bundle of services included in additional compulsory fees varies from one institution to the next and can change over time. Typically, it includes fees for athletics, student health services, student associations, as well as other fees that apply to full-time Canadian students.

Starting this year, "partial" compulsory fees such as health plan and dental plan fees that students can choose not to pay if they provide proof of comparable coverage are not included in the calculation of the weighted average for compulsory fees.

Nationally, additional compulsory fees for Canadian undergraduate students increased 7.0% in 2010/2011 compared with the previous year. On average, these students paid $702 in additional compulsory fees in 2010/2011, up from $656 a year earlier.

lol, i pay $19k. i'm assuming the 10K figure includes places like quebec and manitoba where the tuition is dirt cheap.

Apparently the dentistry students pay about 26k, so I probably shouldn't complain =p

... why am i here?

Ouch are you an international graduate student?

The international graduate prices are also pulled down by BC where international graduate students often pay the same as domestic students for research programs e.g: http://students.sfu.ca/calendar/for_...on_fees.htm l

Originally Posted by dsahota

Ouch are you an international graduate student?

The international graduate prices are also pulled down by BC where international graduate students often pay the same as domestic students for research programs e.g: http://students.sfu.ca/calendar/for_...on_fees.htm l

Professional degree, but it's considered undergrad.

Always good to know I'm one of the chumps paying way more than the average.

One thing to note about graduate fees: we take less classes per term, so the fact that our courses cost very similar is not cool!

How is ridiculously high tuition surprising...?

i wish i was paying average tuition costs for undergrad...

How is rising tuition cost news?

Originally Posted by lorend

One thing to note about graduate fees: we take less classes per term, so the fact that our courses cost very similar is not cool!

One thing to note about engineering fees: we take more classes per term, so the fact that our courses cost even more (per unit) is not cool!

:(

What does everyone expect? We cannot control the market forever.

The government allows only a particular number of accredited schools, and with the demand for post secondary education increasing, its inevitable that tuition will sky rocket.

They've realised which groups they can screw over the most, because they've realised which fields people will always want to get into. The MBA program, engineering, etc...