Ontario’s Grad Students Displeased With 2011 Ontario Budget
A group representing Ontario’s graduate students are worried about the Government of Ontario’s plans to expand graduate enrolment. They claim the expansion does nothing to fix the problems with quality and accessibility.
“This announcement will simply add more students to an over-crowded and underfunded system, leading to a decrease in the quality of graduate education,” said Kimalee Phillip, Chairperson of the Ontario Graduate Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students.
During the announcement of the 2011 Ontario Budget, the provincial government revealed 60,000 new college and university spaces, 6,000 of which will be for new graduate students.
“Increasing enrolment without addressing the high cost of graduate studies will continue to limit students’ ability to focus on their studies and research.”
Phillip also feels that, as it is, Ontario grad students have to cope with:
- The highest tuition fees in Canada
- Debt accumulated from their previous degrees
- Low funding for their research.
The combination of these factors can account for why only half of the grad students in Ontario complete their studies.
“It is difficult for students to appreciate the creation of new graduate spaces when they continue to face high tuition fees, mounting debt and inadequate research funding,” said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.
Leave a Reply