Montreal Economic Institute Says Low Tuition Actually Favours the Wealthy

Thousands of student protesters hit the streets of Montreal last week to rally against high tuition fees. In the wake of the protest, the Montreal Economic Institute published an article that says that low tuition fees actually favour rich families.

Youri Chassin and Germain Belzile, respectively the economist and director of research at the Montreal Economic Institute published an article on their website called “Surprise! Low tuition fees are a benefit – to the rich.”

“The student movement is fighting this increase in the name of accessibility to university studies, and different social groups are supporting them in their battle. What they do not seem to realize, however, is that uniformly low tuition fees represent a wealth transfer… to the rich,” said the article.

Chasson and Belzile further explain that cost is only part of educational accessibility. According to their research and Statistics Canada, with average tuition fees of $5,366 (per year) across Canada, there are 62 students from poorer families in post-secondary education for every 100 students from richer families. In Quebec that number drops to 44 for every 100, despite lower fees of $2,519 per year.

“Uniformly low tuition fees are tantamount to giving the same subsidy to everyone, regardless of their financial means. Accessibility requires instead that aid be directed toward those who really need it, as is done with loans and scholarships,” said the article.