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How Tuition Fees Deter The Attendance Essay

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Increased enrollment and a decreased fiscal focus by governments on post-secondary education has led to the ongoing inflation of tuition rates in Canada. By comparing countries with exorbitantly high tuition rates and countries with free education, the efficacy of the Canadian system can be studied. This paper will explore how tuition fees deter the attendance to university by low-income and international students, and address the need to restructure our economically outdated post-secondary system.
Post-secondary education is highly valued in Canada. Statistics Canada (2016) recorded that 64.1% of Canadians between the ages of 25 to 64 possess some form of post-secondary education, a percentage that has been steadily increasing throughout the years. However, this influx in enrollment for higher education has greatly affected the way in which public institutions are funded. Historically, Canadian colleges have been funded largely through federal and provincial government grants, yet following the recession in the 1970s, funding was seriously impacted as the government was forced to focus their fiscal funding in higher-priority areas (Jones, 2014). In addition, health and education were grouped together in federal allowances to the provincial government in 1995, resulting in more than 4.5 billion dollars between 1995 and 1997 (Fisher, et al, 2006). This forced provincial governments to reevaluate and reform their systems, with many provinces choosing to decrease funding to

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