Access to education was the most prominent topic of debate at Wednesday’s student consultation with Premier Brian Gallant hosted by the St. Thomas University Students’ Union and the University of New Brunswick Student Union.
After a 20-minute presentation by Gallant, the 19 students in attendance were asked to sit in two groups and discuss the issues most important to them.
Jeremy Murray, fourth-year UNB student, said he suffers from a physical disability that makes it expensive to arrange accommodations. He said the $60,000 threshold for people to qualify for Tuition Access Bursary, which covers all tuition costs for first-time students, is limiting, but that’s not the only issue.
“I hate to use these kind of words, but there’s more wrong with the TAB program than just the threshold,” he said. “I know I’m just one person, but the TAB didn’t help because most of my debt from school comes from higher living costs because I have a disability and none of that is being addressed by anybody whether it’s the government or the university.”
In response, Gallant said he lived in harsh conditions under the poverty line when he was growing up, and he knows this program is effective because it allows people in that situation to get an education.
“I don’t think we’re saying that we’re fixing everything in every channel, I think we’re making a big dent … I know what it’s like to live in a situation that’s really tough.”
Gallant said he’s aware of the issues surrounding TAB.
“There are families who, no doubt about it, over $60,000 threshold that are struggling to go to university and college. No doubt. What I can tell you is that pretty much every single family that under the $60,000 threshold are having a tough time to go to university and college.”
Gallant’s consultation at Marshall d’Avray Hall was part of a series of consultations held at New Brunswick universities such as Mount Allison University, Université de Moncton and University of New Brunswick in Saint John.
Student advocates speak out
Sam Titus, STUSU vice-president education and board officer at the New Brunswick Student Alliance, spoke up during the consultation. He said a possible solution to the threshold issue is a sliding scale model.
Robert Burroughs, executive director of the NBSA, said a sliding scale model would mean a bracket of family annual income is decided by the government and the coverage is arranged proportionally. For example a family making between $60,000 and $80,000 get 80 per cent of tuition covered.
“So depending on your resource base, how much money you get from TAB varies,” he said.
He said the current TAB system should be the first step.
“We agree with the premier, every family within that $60,000 or less threshold is struggling, so removing the financial barrier as easily as simply saying we will guarantee your tuition is step one.
“However … The government’s education statistics bureau states that a significant number of our students, enough of them across the province come from middle and lower-middle income families and so it’s really helping those students increase access. If it’s all about increased access then capturing those lower-middle and middle-income families is vital.”
He said he’s received mixed reaction from the premier.
“The premier will not commit to a sliding scale.”
Gallant said it is true that using a sliding scale model would make education accessible to more people, but he said making education free for everyone would do that as well.
“It’s not easy,” he said, “If we get more money to make university and college more accessible for more people we’ll do so, but right now we have a historic program with the free tuition program that we’re really happy about.”
Murray, currently studying media arts and culture with a concentration in media production, said this consultation was a good start but there is more to this issue than what they got to on Wednesday.
“There were areas they breezed over and there needs to be more work,” he said.
Following up with benefiting students
After gaining mixed reactions over the past five months, the Tuition Access Bursary has some students feeling a little less worried as they settle into their routines for a new school year.
First-year student Sarah Haevans said she has already felt that financial weight being lifted off her shoulders.
“I definitely think the stress and anxiety levels are way lower because it feels almost like a safety net,” she said.
Since the bursary it was announced in April, the program has been criticized for having what many believe are unfair limitations.
For Haevans, the assistance is appreciated as her single mother is unable to work, and she herself cannot work due to an anxiety disorder. Thus, having the privilege of receiving free tuition is one Haevans said was the sole reasons she was able to attend university this fall.
“With the whole debt thing, I almost didn’t come to university because I can’t work either, so I can’t work towards paying it off,” Haevans said. “But the TAB is literally what solidified my decision to coming is that I could get some help with that.”
Isabelle Agnew, a fourth-year STU student who also qualified for the TAB, said before this year she paid outstanding tuition fees upwards of $4000 with her own money.
“This is the first time I’ve gotten loans, so until this year my tuition payments were literally me spending my own hard-earned money,” said Agnew. “So, the fact that the TAB has just covered that cost for me makes things so much easier. It means I don’t have to worry about being low on cash.”
Agnew said while she is happy others who are low and middle income families are able to get this kind of financial support, she also feels it forgets about others who are still in hard places financially.
“I think this is a completely unjust system that completely forgets about entire chunks of the student population. It also means that someone like me, who could, by all accounts, afford school without the TAB, gets just as much money as someone who actually couldn’t afford school without the TAB.”
Burroughs said the TAB is a good program and that the intentions were there, but the execution was poor.
“[The income cut-off point] was hard for a lot of people,” Burroughs said. “Like how do you justify literally making a single dollar over that and not qualifying?”
Burroughs said the NBSA has encountered a lot of frustration from students and parents throughout the community who don’t understand what the Gallant government is trying to accomplish.
“So, there was a lot of frustration about the government’s lack of ability to articulate what they were trying to do, why they were trying to do it, how they were trying to do it.”
Despite the lack of clarity that is still in the air, Agnew said she hopes experiments like the TAB signify a hopeful future for making education accessible for all.
“This is a stepping stone, though a very flawed stepping stone, but I do hope it will bring us closer to a full and equal society that doesn’t charge for education.”
