MUN needs money, but tuition battle is 'morbid,' says students' union

A budget report suggesting Memorial University increase its course tuition fees has the students' union concerned, even though MUN said there's no official plan on the table.

The report from the integrated planning committee (IPC), formed in 2016 to address a $30-million budget cut, appeared earlier this week in the MUN Gazette, outlining a suggestion to increase tuition for the fall semester in 2021.

According to Memorial University of Newfoundland Students' Union (MUNSU), the increases to tuition could be as much as 57 per cent for students from this province.

"Obviously, for any student in the province, it's gonna be a big shocker," says Liam O'Neill, director of external affairs with MUNSU.

It's the tuition portion that's been frozen, but the cost has been going up.- Liam O'Neill

According to O'Neill, the cost per course at the moment is $255, but with the suggested increase, that would jump to between $350 and $400.

The report, which is the second from the IPC, states there have been government-mandated tuition reductions and freezes since 2004-05, forcing the university to rely more heavily on provincial funding.

But after a cut to MUN's operating budget in 2016, the university floated the idea of a tuition increase in 2017, and implemented a 30 per cent tuition increase for international students last year, sparking student protests.

"It's a very, very morbid situation," said O'Neill.

Even if government funding stayed the same, O'Neill said there's been a backlog of infrastructure problems at the university that can't be addressed without more money.

And while tuition rates have been the same for more than a decade, that's not the whole picture.

"It's a bit of a misnomer to say that tuition's been frozen. It's the tuition portion that's been frozen, but the cost has been going up," he said.

"The government obviously doesn't like the publicity of tuition increases and they want it to stay low, but what they're not considering is that MUN needs a lot."

Students caught in the middle

MUN said in a email to CBC News that "there is no proposal to raise tuition."

The university said the IPC, a panel which includes representatives from MUNSU, delivered a report to the university's senate committee, outlining a series of recommendations, "some of which relate to the tuition."

While there is no official proposal on the table, O'Neill said MUNSU is already hearing from students who are worried about what it could mean.

"There's a lot of people here that it will dramatically change their ability to pay for school," O'Neill said.

"Maybe some people can pay more, that's always gonna be the case, but one of the duties of this university, as the only university in the province, is to provide affordable and accessible education to the students of this province."

O'Neill said that if tuition fees go up, government might then cut funding to the university.

In the meantime, O'Neill said students are caught in the middle of a university administration battle against the province. 

"The university's solution at this point is going to be to increase tuition," he said.

"They're probably going to lose the money from government because government constantly has said that if the tuition goes up, they'll cut the funding."

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