We all knew this day would come (those of us without trust funds and parents who have been saving since we were born). The national student loan services has been calling recent grads this month, and the loans are now to be paid off. Every year, around this time, alumni like myself wake up to the reality of the amount we have paid for our education. We buck up, tighten our spending belts again, and we push forward toward that ever inevitable “light at the end of the tunnel” in about 9.5 years.
Personally, I have around $25,000 to pay back to the provincial and federal government. That was my cost of living over the past three years, or as I like to think of it 27 months including summer courses. During those months and in between them, I worked two full time jobs, a part time job and a variety of volunteer hours.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to most people that tuition has gone up dramatically in the past few years. According to one source, from 1990 to 2010 the average tuition in Canada has gone up from $1271 to $5139. That means since the majority of current Trent students were born the cost of tuition has gone up 404%. The federal student debt was about $13.5 billion last year and that number is only getting higher. In 2000, before this crazy little thing we call the “recession,” only 20% of graduates were able to pay off that debt within 2 years of their graduation, and over 25% reported difficulty repaying their debt. I can only speculate how this statistic would have changed given today’s cost of living and job climate, not to mention how it adds up for international students who pay over 3x the amount Canadian students do.
So maybe its the government’s fault. They have not raised the amount they give post secondary institutions while the cost of inflation rises. They keep funnelling money into students’ hands by way of repayable loans and then they state that they are investing into our futures.
However, I would like to suggest that as much as we can blame the government, the issue is within the institution as well. Arguments students hear, from schools like our own, of “we’re in debt too” are laughable. While Trent, this year, claimed a $4.3 million dollar deficit (and a $7.8 million deficit 2 years ago, and $10.5 million the year before) they slashed funding mostly to undergraduate programming. According to the most recent budget, $2.5 million was reduced in the instructional budget this year, “primarily [in] undergraduate teaching and undergraduate academic services.” Additionally the budget calls for more “strategic management of scholarships,” which means less of the school’s funding is going back into student’s hands and to those who need it. Those new students who paid $6820.67 (for Canadian students) or $17,522.65 (for international students), statistically speaking, gained 404% more debt than the graduates from 1990, and in return they received significantly less options for programming, fewer professors per student, and less overall student support.
However, I am not going to let this get me down; as I write my first $290 cheque to the government this month, as I work 60 hours a week at $12 an hour, and as I work extra volunteer hours to keep up the possibility that I can get into the career I want, some day, I will take a little time to consider how much this degree has got me so far. I simply ask you to think about how much of your money is going back into the education you aren’t getting, and also think how hard we all worked to get here. Maybe, some day soon, we will move on from our education despite the obstacles that surround us, however, truthfully, I just don’t want to see you or your friends in the unemployment office soon.
