Connecting the Dots

Post-secondary education and training is an integral component of BC’s economic framework and amongst the most important social programs provided by the BC government. It is a basic requirement necessary to participate and succeed in today’s labour market, and essential in order to participate fully in society. In the last several decades, public demand for post-secondary education has increased, and unfortunately, funding has failed to keep pace. Public funding shortfalls have been downloaded to students and their families in the form of increased upfront costs. From 1990 to 2017, tuition fees across the country have increased on average by more than 349%. In BC, average tuition fees for an undergraduate education in 1990 were $1,808 compared with $5,635 in 2017, an increase of 212%. A robust and accessible system of quality post-secondary education is key for British Columbia to remain competitive and innovative into the future. Continual cuts to education funding, coupled with unmanageable cost increases, threaten the province’s ability to provide the education and training needed for BC to prosper.

The British Columbia Federation of Students represents over 150,000 college and university students from across all regions of the province, and the recommendations herein are representative of the current priorities of those students, as brought forward by their respective students’ unions and societies.

Read the full report here: Connecting the Dots: a framework for a high-quality, affordable secondary education system in BC

This report was a submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services for the 2018 budget consultation by BCFS