Recent tuition increase forces student to leave STU
Anny Lee Ramirez was supposed to be a third year student at St. Thomas University this year. She was enrolled in the Aquinas program and was planning on majoring in English. Her time at STU was cut short because her family could not afford to send her to STU after the tuition increase.
“I think the international fees are unreasonable” says Ramirez.
“People leave their countries to go to school somewhere else in hopes of it being cheaper. I know that was one of the reasons that I chose to go to STU. The fact that I now have to start in a new place because they decided to raise the tuition is unfair. I did not want to leave my friends and the school that I loved. “
The International tuition was raised from $12,000 to $12,480. International students are also given a $1,700 bursary to assist with their tuition. Many international students are upset about the increase because there is a tuition freeze in New Brunswick while their fees are raised annually.
STU financial comptroller Reg Gallant feels that students have misunderstood the increase in tuition.
“I believe that most international students were looking at the net tuition when they were calculating the tuition increase. This year’s tuition is $10,780. With the bursary included, it was a four-percent increase. Some students may have thought that the increase was $12,480 and didn’t include the bursary”.
Ramirez says that she understood the increase along with the bursary, but felt that it was still too much.
“$400 may not seem like a lot, but in truth it is. That is $400 that I use could to pay for my flight there. I could use that to pay for school books and other expenses. In truth $400 is like asking for $10,000. It’ll start off as small and the next thing you know you are in debt trying to paying a loan off for that $400. To me it was enough to look elsewhere” says Ramirez.
Ramirez is now attending a university in the states.
