VICTORIA, BC/UNCEDED TERRITORIES OF THE LEKWUNGEN PEOPLES, AND THE SONGHEES, ESQUIMALT, AND WSANEC FIRST NATIONS
VANCOUVER/UNCEDED TERRITORIES OF THE MUSQUEAM, SQUAMISH, AND TSLEIL-WAUTUTH FIRST NATIONS
BC students were disappointed to see a lack of investment in the post-secondary system in BC Budget 2024.
Due to decades of government underfunding, post-secondary institutions have relied on exploiting international students through sky-high tuition fees to balance institutional budgets.
As post-secondary institutions face extreme financial uncertainty due to declining tuition revenue from the federal cap on international students and provincial mandates to balance their budgets, the provincial government has not announced a backstop or increased funding for post-secondary institutions, leaving institutions to make cuts and increase tuition to make up the difference.
Government funding made up 90% of post-secondary budgets in 1979, but makes up just 33-36% today. BC students want to see the BC government increase funding to post-secondary institutions to restore the public funding model, which will provide stability for the hundreds of thousands of post-secondary students and employees at BC post-secondary institutions and the communities they live in.
"BC students are not satisfied with this budget," said Manpreet, Chairperson of the Alliance of BC Students. "The government needs to make sure that student priorities and the post-secondary system are adequately funded going forward so that students aren’t left to foot the bill for government underfunding of post-secondary.”
“We welcome affordability measures such as the BC Renter’s Credit and BC Electricity Affordability Credit, but the government needs to make sure students who live in student housing are also included in the eligibility criteria,” said Manpreet.
Accessibility and mental health supports that are available for students in K-12 should continue to be available for them when they reach the post-secondary system.
While BC students welcome capital investments in post-secondary institutions, including new student housing construction and centres for early childhood education, and funding for skills training through the Future Ready Action Plan, students want to see more continued investments in building student housing on campuses as population growth continues so we don’t fall back into the situation we were in previously.
The Alliance of BC Students is pleased that government has been following our recommendations to build student housing to take pressure off of rental markets and traffic congestion; we hope to see more investments in student housing to make sure students have affordable, accessible places to live on campuses across the province.
"Students want to see more money for student housing, sexualized and gender-based violence prevention, measures aimed at supporting and protecting international students, and long overdue supports for BC's graduate students,” said Manpreet.
Despite years of student advocacy, the government provided no new funding for sexualized and gender-based violence prevention and response initiatives on campuses. We are pleased that the government is now working with us to develop a Sexual Violence Action Plan for post-secondary, but students have been advocating for these measures for years and the government has not moved fast enough to address the crisis on campus when it comes to sexualized and gender-based violence.
Graduate students were also not prioritized in the Budget 2024. The ABCS fought hard to get the BC Graduate Student Scholarship as BC was the only province in Canada that didn’t have one; however, graduate students in BC and in Canada are still underfunded compared to their interprovincial and international peers.
"BC graduate students live in poverty and struggle with a variety of things. We need more targeted supports for BC's graduate students, who drive the province's innovation agenda and play a critical role in education on post-secondary campuses," said Emily Tang, ABCS Board member and Vice-President External of the UBC Graduate Student Society.
"Graduate students are struggling with things like food security, mental health, research funding, housing, sexualized and gender-based violence. They have unique needs that must be addressed, and we need the government to take those priorities seriously and step up to address them."
Students were also disappointed to see that the MSP fee for international students, which was eliminated for everyone else in 2020, still remains in effect. The MSP fee was doubled for international students at the same time that it was cut for everyone else, increasing costs for students who already pay tuition 4-5x higher than the average domestic student tuition.
BC students are waiting for the release of the International Education Framework, the Funding Formula Review, and the Sexual Violence Action Plan. Students hope that what was not addressed in the budget will be addressed soon.
For more information please contact:
Manpreet - she/her
Chairperson
e: chairperson@bcstudents.ca
www.bcstudents.ca
Joshua Millard - he/him
Executive Director
c: (604) 600-6732
e: jmillard@bcstudents.ca
www.bcstudents.ca
Hassan Merali - he/him
Director of Communications
c: (778) 580-7967
e: hmerali@bcstudents.ca
www.bcstudents.ca
The Alliance of British Columbia Students is a non-partisan society of student associations representing undergraduate, graduate, and trades students from across the province that exists to advocate on issues that affect post-secondary students in British Columbia.