Liberals break election promise as 30 per cent tuition fee reduction becomes a five per cent increase

TORONTO, March 8, 2012 /CNW/ - Students are surprised and outraged to hear that tuition fees will increase for the seventh consecutive year by five per cent, announced today by Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Glen Murray. For students in all graduate programs and many undergraduate programs, this will mean that tuition fees have increased by 71 per cent since 2006.

"Minister Glen Murray promised to include students in the discussion of a new tuition fee framework, he promised to reduce tuition fees by 30 per cent and he promised to make college and university education more affordable. Students are tired of having promises broken and simply cannot afford to pay hundreds of dollars more for their education next fall," said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.

Ontario students already pay the highest tuition fees in Canada and collectively owe $9 billion in student debt and billions more to banks. Another annual tuition fee increase will ensure that students who must take out loans to finance their education will pay tens of thousands of dollars more than their wealthier classmates due to interest payments.

"To pay for the Ontario Tuition Grant, many grants for low income students were cut and the poorest students were excluded from eligibility. Today's announcement means that poor students will help subsidize more wealthy students' education," said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "Dalton McGuinty will have a hard time being taken seriously as the self-proclaimed education premier with this legacy of forcing students into record-high amounts of debt due to record-high fees," she said.

The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario represents more than 300,000 college and university students attending public post-secondary institutions across the province.                                                             

Sandy Hudson, Ontario Chairperson: 416-925-3825
Nora Loreto, Communications and Government Relations Coordinator: 416-925-3825 or 416-846-6672 (mobile)