On March 21, the day before the budget, students from St. Thomas University delivered close to 1000 postcards signed by students at St. Thomas and Mount Allison Universities to Post-Secondary Education Minister Martine Coloumbe’s office.
Students are calling on the provincial government to:
– Reduce tuition fees through increased funding to post-secondary education system
– Transform inefficient student financial aid programs into up-front grants, so financial aid gets to students who need it, when they need it
– Commit to regulating international tuition fees to stop skyrocketing tuition fee rates
“New Brunswick students already pay the second-highest tuition fees in the country, students can’t afford cuts,” stated Ella Henry, President of the STU Students’ Union, “Offloading provincial debt onto students is not a solution to the province’s budgetary challenges”.
The tuition freeze, which began in 2007, expired this year. The provincial government’s budget released on March 22, 2011, raised tuition by $200 a year.
The postcards are a part of a larger campaign from the St. Thomas University Students’ Union that has included faxing student’s debt stories to the Minister and several hundred students marching to the Legislature.
The St. Thomas University Students’ Union represents over 2500 students at St. Thomas University.