Tuition will be climbing to help Okanagan College balance the books.
The $94 million, 2015 budget calls for a two per cent hike in tuition fees.
“We have passed a balanced operating budget that allows us to continue to provide programs and services throughout the region, without any service reductions or layoffs,” said Tom Styffe, board chairperson.
For a full-time student taking university transfer arts, the increase will add about $32.67 per semester, bringing a semester’s tuition to $1,666.11. For a student taking the office assistant program, the increase will add about $42.82 for the program (total tuition of $2,183.79). A level one auto service technician apprentice will see tuition increase by about $14.50 to $739.63.
The Vernon Students Association admits it’s concerned about the college continually applying the annual two per cent increase to tuition, the maximum allowable by legislation.
“With each tuition increase, the difficulty of maintaining accessibility to post-secondary for students is compounded,” said Eric Reist, VSA general manager.
“This is especially true for students who already find they are marginalized by public policy decisions that have locked them into the poverty cycle. We contend that public education needs to be adequately funded, and that the province needs to realign itself with the values held by the majority of British Columbians. Access to public education at the post-secondary level benefits the entire community, and as such it needs to be affordable for everyone.”
The OC board also made a decision to hold off charging fees for either Adult Basic Education or English as a Second Language courses for domestic students for the 2015-16 year. The province recently changed policy to allow public institutions to charge for those program areas, and announced funding reductions, although those were offset with one-time transitional funding for the coming year.
Over the next several months, OC will develop a plan about which courses to charge tuition for. The board will review that plan before implementing any fees.
“We believe it is important to do the research about how ABE and ESL fees may affect our students,” said Styffe.
“At a time when so many jobs require higher education, there is a great deal of interest in preserving access to these program areas.”
