No, you’re not mistaken, your tuition is a little bit more this year.
If you are a domestic student, you will pay an extra $363 a year for tuition, plus an extra $100 in fees.
Students who thought they would be paying the same amount as last year can be forgiven for thinking that.
In April’s provincial budget Finance Minister Roger Melanson called for a tuition freeze. STU did not institute such a freeze.
STU director of communications, Jeffery Carlton, says while the provincial government can ask for a tuition freeze, they cannot impose one. He also said the tuition increase was part of an agreement signed with the previous Alward government.
“We had reached a tuition fee agreement with the province of New Brunswick previously, a five year agreement, and what we were doing was fulfilling the terms of that five year agreement.”
The STU Student Union has been supportive of the fee increase.
“We advocate for an accessible, affordable, high quality education. So of course affordable is one of those main pillars. But universities are funded in two primary ways. One, through operating grants, and two through tuition,” said Megan Thomson, President of STUSU. “The operating grants were frozen as well as tuition. That means that the universities lost funding on both sides…If tuition and operating grants were to remain frozen we believe that the quality of education would suffer.”
If you’re an international student, not only did your tuition and fees increase, your health insurance increased $630.
Book Sadprasid, public relations officer for the STU International Students Association says the increases will hit students differently.
“To be honest [the tuition increase] for some international students, it’s not a big difference at all. But for me I think it’s something.”
