Free Tuition in Canada

According to Vice, there is no real reason not to have free post-secondary education. Post-secondary tuition has been steadily rising over the years – in fact, Vice says between the 1990s to 2013, the price of tuition has nearly tripled.

The high price of tuition discourages some from attending post-secondary school, as their payment options can be limited. Unless a person has pre-existing means to pay for their education, their options for affording high education are restricted.

Offering free post-secondary education opens the door for disadvantaged people who may otherwise be unable to afford attending university or college. Applying for loans may not always be a feasible option, as loans are short term (non-)solutions. Loans need to be paid back – and in theory, the higher education provided at a post-secondary level should mean that students are able to achieve high paying jobs which help them quickly pay off their debt. However, that is not always the case.

A university degree is no longer a guarantee for a university level job as it used to be. The costs of actually achieving a post-secondary education often outweigh the benefits when a graduate gets out of school.

The expectation always seems to be for people to pursue degrees after graduating from high school; degrees which put them thousands of dollars in debt. They do so (myself included) under the belief that they will acquire a job befitting the schooling they have undergone. However, that is no longer the case, as students have no guarantee of jobs being available to them after they graduate. As such, graduates end up with jobs they did not go to school for or working unpaid internships in order to gain “experience” and are left with no means to pay off the debt they have accumulated.

When considering free tuition, the state of Canada today needs to be taken into consideration. Upwards of 70 per cent of jobs in Canada require a post-secondary education; meaning people are expected to pursue higher education – or need to in order to be able to succeed past entry-level jobs, whether or not affording such education is feasible for the individual.

The high tuition price in Canada coupled with this expectation severely limits people from lower-income households. Student loans are only temporary relief and can further inhibit people when they are not able to gain a job which allows them to pay back their loans without incurring more debt.