Our Federation voices students’ issues and concerns to government, while conducting in-depth research to support policy recommendations. Lobbying and accurate research are only effective when students are actively engaged in campaigns to influence the decisions and policies of government.
Because of ever-increasing tuition fees, students are graduating with debt loads that are higher than ever. Average student debt for an undergraduate degree in Canada is now over $30,000.
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BC’s future depends on an educated, skilled workforce. But underfunding in the last two decades has led to skyrocketing fees and putting post-secondary education out of reach for too many young people.
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Due to government underfunding, institutions have come to depend on the revenue they receive from increasing fees for international students.
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The high cost of textbooks is creating obstacles for students to be successful in classes. Since 2002, the cost of textbooks has nearly doubled. In fact, 26% of BC students choose to not register for a course due to textbook costs, which negatively impacts their academic career.
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Many of the disadvantages facing Indigenous peoples such as unemployment and lower incomes can be traced back to the gap in educational attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In order for true reconciliation to be achieved, the government needs to take steps to reducing the attainment gap.
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Period poverty, a person’s inability to access menstrual products due to financial limitations, is a real issue that affects people across the province and that local organisations struggle to address. Almost a quarter of Canadian women report having struggled to afford menstrual products for themselves or their children, and 66% say that periods have kept them from participating fully in day-to-day activities of life.
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Evidence shows that the move away from compulsory trades has negatively impacted apprenticeship completion rates. We have had a ‘narrowing and shallowing’ of the trades and have created a far less mobile workforce able to take their fulsome set of skills and apply it to new industries as the needs of the economy changes.
Students in trade programs must have the same academic and professional support enjoyed by students on other post-secondary tracks.
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Coalition campaigns are those which are run by other organisations, and which members have decided to endorse and actively participate in on-campus.
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Accessible education must include a safe campus community that empowers all people to succeed. To that end, the Federation has created the “Unlearn” campaign, which contains a series of materials to raise awareness and start conversations about the work we all have to do to unlearn hurtful behavior.
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Students in Canada need grants, not loans. Up-front grants relieve financial pressures that students face while in study; further, the assurance provided by up-front, needs-based grants addresses debt aversion, a factor that limits those from low- and middle-income backgrounds from enrolling in the first place.
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