The undergraduate degree that just keeps on giving

Higher learning, life-long friends and keg stands are the dreams of every first year university student as they venture into a new and exciting world.

There is one thing those university recruiters left out in their flashy presentations to high school students though…the extensive cost of this dream.

I’ve wanted to be a university student for as long as I can remember. Listening to my parents exciting and sometimes hysterical stories of breakfast at the Ardmore, late night runs to the kitchen at King’s and drinking beer back when the Midtown didn’t have washrooms for women sounded like the life for me. So for the past five years I have been living that life and can say it does have its moments - but at a price higher then my parents paid.

As one of over 40,000 university students in Nova Scotia I was appalled to hear the provincial Minister of Education, Karen Casey, say that “Sometimes the costs that students incur are real, but sometimes they are a lifestyle that a student has chosen which escalates, and when they come out they come out with a big debt, but it might not be all directly related to their course of study.”

After paying into the Nova Scotia economy for the past five years I was infuriated to hear an elected politician make such a gross and negligent comment without examining the facts.

It is a fact that students in Nova Scotia pay the highest tuition in the country. It is also a fact that Nova Scotia has the lowest per capita funding for post secondary education in the country and that university graduates who stay to work in Nova Scotia can expect to earn 10 per cent less then the national average income.

I can tell you that the price of university has jumped drastically since my first day on campus. It is now almost out of reach.

According to the Canadian Federation of Students, university tuition in Nova Scotia has increased by more then 120 per cent in real dollars since 1990. This explains why this fundamental life experience is becoming an unattainable goal.

A typical university student in Nova Scotia can now expect to pay, on average, $6,571 a year for tuition. This does not cover books, university imposed fees, transportation, housing or food. Including these factors easily brings students yearly costs to somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000.


I, like many others, have worked at typical student jobs, from the call centre to the liquor store, in an attempt to offset the high cost of my studies.

Like many other students, I am also burdened with the fact that student loans were not an option, due to my middle-class standing in society. The “sins” of our parents are passed on to us. The expectation is that if your parents fit into a certain tax bracket they will pay your entire education.

Thankfully, this is slowly changing, but not before the cost of a university degree is more then the majority can afford. I will be one of the lucky ones surviving my university education with a minor debt, but with a minimum wage of $7.15 an hour, it is easy to see why university is being priced out of the reach of many.

I have also heard more horror stories about student loans then I care to repeat. Take my friend, Anna’s story for example, she received $134 towards her $7000 tuition and then was asked to give it back. Or a classmate who received $34, but Canada Student Loans does not honour any loan under $100. So, maybe it wasn’t such a loss for me to have been unqualified for one of these generous loans provided by the government.

According to Statistics Canada, the average Nova Scotian employee with an undergraduate degree will start off earning $37, 872. With more than 20 per cent of Nova Scotia university graduates carrying student loan debt in excess of $25,000 (almost double the national average) their debt load will be nearly identical to their income when adding all interest payments.

Take my friend Anna who I just mentioned for instance. Her loans currently stand at $35,000 with interest payments of $200 a month. She still has a year left to finish her undergraduate degree and yet Canada Student Loans wants money back from her. It strikes me that there is something wrong with the system.

You might be asking yourself “why should I care?” “How does this affect Nova Scotia?” Well Nova Scotia has the highest exit rate of freshly educated university students. Once finished their over-priced educations, close to 30 per cent of graduates leave for greener pastures, or oil rich provinces. This means the students we are educating are not hanging around to help Nova Scotia’s economy.

University enrolment is also declining, so Nova Scotia cities and towns like Antigonish and Wolfville that depend greatly on university students for revenue better start looking for new customers.

All this discussion of student debt though brings me back to a speech that John Ralston Saul gave during a graduation ceremony at Saint Francis Xavier University that I attended.

Saul said, “An undergraduate degree today has roughly the social and economic value of high school graduation in 1900.” He added, “I don't say this to depress you. It is a simple reality. And a further reminder of why high undergraduate tuition is an error.”

Saul continued on to say, “There is no sophisticated payoff for society or for the universities or for the economy or for the graduates if we send you off into your careers with a $25,000 to $60,000 debt…This is bad economics. The logical and just progression of Canadian public education would be towards lower or free tuition at the undergraduate level.”

I remember sitting in the audience and listening to one of Canada’s brightest articulate these fascinating thoughts. I looked around the room and every eye was on him. He was saying something so simple and true. Most parents and special guests had never heard it put so simply before. University costs too much. Students are not getting what they are paying for and the Nova Scotia economy is not getting what it could out of our graduates.

Thus, this is not just a university student problem. This is a major economical problem. With more then 70 per cent of high school students naming finances as the reason they will not be pursuing post-secondary education where does that leave the work force?

As Saul says, “this is bad economics.” So some major changes need to be made and I am afraid for Ms. Casey’s sake the changes are a little more serious then skipping spring break.

I will admit that I have taken a couple of vacations here and there throughout my university career. I have spent around $3000 on vacations in my five years in university. However, I have also spent three years in a co-operative education program, where I was required to pay to work and had to move (at my own expense) to Ottawa to get experience.

So I have spent money on minor vacations, which, in my opinion are well deserved considering that my program requires me to be in school or working year-round. And these vacations don’t even come close to the $50,000 that has gone towards tuition and books over the past five years.

As a new university graduate planning to continue my university studies, I have to ask myself: Is it worth staying in Nova Scotia? Should I stay in a province where I will be charged to the max, make the least and criticized by the very individuals who are elected to work for us?

I guess I will see what I can afford to do after graduation.