Students formally submit their call for lower tuition fees to government

TORONTO , Nov. 19 /CNW/ - Two weeks after student protests in 12 Ontario cities drew attention to underfunding in the post-secondary education sector, students submitted their first suite of recommendations to the post-secondary education secretariat. Established by the Ontario government, the secretariat will recommend a new funding framework for the post-secondary education sector in 2010.

"On November 5 , thousands of students publicly demonstrated their frustration with high tuition fees and decreasing quality of post-secondary education in all corners of the province," said Shelley Melanson , Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "Today, we're formally submitting our call for tuition fee reductions and other improvements to make education more affordable and accessible."

Students are separating their submissions into categories to emphasize the importance of various minor and major changes that must be implemented. The first submission focuses explicitly on tuition and ancillary fee policy and makes various recommendations to make education more affordable for students.

"Due to the combination of the highest tuition fees and debt loads in Canada , and recent record-high youth unemployment, students are struggling more than ever before to pay for their studies," said Melanson. "Our first submission calls for an end to the current trend of five percent tuition fee increases and for a long-term strategy to be developed that progressively reduces the upfront financial barriers posed by high tuition fees."

While this submission focuses on tuition and ancillary fees, submissions that target student financial assistance, funding and quality, credit transfer and regional issues will be released over the next several weeks. A copy of Our Bright Future can be found at www.cfsontario.ca.

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

For further information: Shelley Melanson, Chairperson, CFS-Ontario: [phone] or [phone] (cell); Roxanne Dubois, Treasurer, CFS-Ontario and French-Language media contact, [phone] (cell)