A student movement is growing on campuses in Fredericton. Students and supporters are being called on to "Unite! Fight inequality and create equal access to post-secondary education" and wear a red square to show their support for the movement.
Students are uniting in opposition to the growing levels of student debt. In New Brunswick, the average debt load for a student graduating from a four-year undergraduate degree is $34,000. Last year, the New Brunswick government created a program intended to reduce student debt, while simultaneously eliminating a $2000 bursary for first year students. To qualify for the new program, students must have completed their degree on schedule and must have accumulated more than $26,000 in student loans. Last year only 400 of approximately 5000 graduates qualified for the program.
The students' movement points out that, "changes in the economy and the job market... requires increasingly high levels of education in order to compete and participate." Given high tuition fees and student debt, they ask, "Who is left out? Who is disadvantaged or advantaged by the current system? What barriers do people face in today's system, in regards to education and employment?"
The students' manifesto demands that the government restore post-secondary funding, and provide more grants instead of loans to students applying for financial aid. "We are aware of arguments that would have us believe that our university degrees are a privilege that grant access to higher salaries and rewards. These arguments serve to justify the payment of tuition as a sort of access fee to a privileged stratum of society. We reject these arguments. While we agree that those who benefit more have a greater responsibility to support public institutions which guarantee the freedom of all, we feel that the Canada Income Tax Act currently serves this function, and should be used appropriately in the public interest."
In 1976, Canada acceded to the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; an agreement which states that, "Higher Education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education." Ireland, Sweden, Cuba, Finland, Brazil, Norway and Denmark all offer public post-secondary education with zero tuition fees.
Decades of government funding cuts to post-secondary education shifted the debt that Canada accumulated from deferred corporate taxes onto the backs of the students. Tuition fees in Canada are now four times higher than their level in 1990-91.
This year, students around the world fought back against increasing costs of education. Students in California occupied buildings to protest a proposed 32% fee increase. In Germany and and Austria, students, faculty and workers participated in protests, strikes and occupations in response to cutbacks to government funding for post-secondary education. The German government attempted to introduce a €1500 tuition fee.
The students' movement has been growing on the campuses of St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick and it is challenging the neoliberal funding model that makes education a debt sentence.
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