MEDIA ADVISORY - Close The Gap! Students Outraged as York University Further Exploits International Students

TORONTO, April 24, 2014 /CNW/ - Effective Fall 2013, York University imposed a 5.5 per cent tuition fee increase on all new international graduate students. Effective Fall 2014, the university will impose a further 50 per cent tuition fee increase, amounting to an additional $6000 per year. On top of this, international Masters students have had an additional $825 fee imposed, which has been labelled an "International Head Tax". Further increases of 5 per cent per year are slated for international graduate students in 2015 and 2016 in addition to the removal of the International Tuition Fee Scholarship which helped to even the gap between domestic and international tuition fees.

In light of these stunning and disproportionate fee increases, the York University Graduate Students' Association (YUGSA), representing all graduate students at York University, and CUPE 3903, representing graduate teaching assistants, graduate assistants, research assistants as well as contract faculty at York University will launch a campaign dedicated to reversing this reprehensible and discriminatory targeting of international students. Students will be attending the Board of Governors' meeting scheduled for April 28^th to demand that the fee increases be reversed and that funding for international students, the ITFS, be reinstated.

Date: April 28, 2014
Place: 5^th Fl, Kaneff Tower, Keele Campus
Time: 3pm - 6pm
Who: York University Graduate Students' Association
         CUPE 3903

The YUGSA and CUPE 3903 call on the university to reverse the 2013-14 international tuition fee increase and to cancel the projected international fee increases from 2014-16.  This move by York is discriminatory and highlights the need for the provincial government to implement firm regulatory measures designed to prevent universities from imposing discriminatory policies that target students based on race, ethnicity or place of origin.

SOURCE: YORK UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION

Hans Rollman, CUPE 3903 member, 416-435-3071, [email protected] 
Jennifer Farmer, Incoming YUGSA VP Campaigns, 416-666-0633, [email protected]