It was a busier meeting than usual this week for Selkirk College’s Board of Governors. Almost 100 students attended to voice their support for a tuition rate freeze. The Board ultimately approved a two per cent increase to cover inflationary costs.
74 per cent of the College’s annual budget is in wages and benefits, explains President Angus Graeme. The college has almost 400 FTE (full time equivalent) employees with negotiated settlements that include annual increases. He also factors in the grants for post-secondary education having remained stagnant.
“It’s becoming a bit more and more difficult challenge for college and universities [sic] to maintain the level of service that’s expected.”
It’s a difficult balance, he adds, between providing the full range of services and programs while managing costs. “When it comes to things like student food banks, emergency bursaries, we just started a nurse practitioner clinic at the Castlegar campus, we do employment services, all sorts of healthy campus initiatives and mental health services for students. All of these are absolutely necessary.”
He says the challenge is communicating the message to government that the cost to educate someone in today’s world is very different than for previous generations. Graeme says he hopes to see Selkirk College continue to grow as an institution rather than contract.
There are other ways to reduce some of the costs for students, Graeme feels, other than simply freezing tuition rates: “We were strongly aware of the housing challenge and so we have plans in place to again try and help address that challenge for students in terms of cost and availability for both our Castlegar campus but also Nelson and other locations.
The two per cent tuition increase is only for domestic students and ranges from $65 to $125 per year depending on the program. International students are seeing a larger increase, which will put the college more in line with rates at others in the region. Tuition for those students also hasn’t been increased over the last few years.
According to the college, Selkirk offers the sixth lowest tuition rates amongst the 11 British Columbia colleges and the sixth lowest of the 25 public post-secondary institutions in the province. The highest tuition for the equivalent course load in BC is $7,060 versus Selkirk College’s $2,802.
Graeme compliments the students on their campaign and says it was well presented. You can read more about their efforts here.
