CNC Board Approves Tuition Hike, Suspension of Nursing Assistant Program
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Prince George, B.C. – Students at the College of New Caledonia will be forced to cough up more money for tuition for the 2017/18 school year.
This after the College’s Board of Governors approved a two per cent increase at their meeting this afternoon.
The College estimates the hike will contribute approximately $130,000 to the school’s base operating budget.
President Henry Reiser called it “a modest increase” – noting it amounts to $20 a student a semester for each course.
“What happened is in 2003 we had a tuition freeze and the provincial government has allowed us to increase tuition by a two per cent limit annually. And so, we are just fulfilling that requirement by government,” he said after the meeting.
“If we do not increase our tuition, then we are responsible for any of the financial consequences. We have fixed costs that increase on an annual basis like heat, hydro, electricity, everything, including the cost of paper and the cost of U.S. dollars. So, this is to try and offset those costs as they increase.”
Reiser also pointed out CNC continues to have, on average, some of the lowest tuition fees in the province. For example, he said the average tuition at CNC is $2,600 – well below the provincial average of $2,900.
The tuition hike passed by a 9-2 vote (one Board member abstained). Mark Wendling, the Faculty Employee Board representative, abstained, noting the issue has been keeping him “up at night.”
“Having to vote for the increase helps reflect the flaws and how broken post-secondary education funding is,” he said, noting faculty members were split on the issue. “The reason I say that is if we don’t pass the motion, then it’s a signal to the government we don’t need money.”
Today the Board also voted unanimously to suspend the 2017 intake into the College’s Nursing Unit Assistant program.
Education Council chair Jacob Madjitey noted the one-year suspension “would be appropriate to make the program more relevant.”
Reiser added the suspension was driven by employers in the community.
“It was determined by the employer group that the skills profile that the graduates possessed didn’t meet their requirements. And as a result, it takes time to re-write the curriculum so only the intake has been suspended,” he said.
“The same way we suspended the intake of the Dental Hygiene program. We said two years was the target for that but the target is one year for this program.”
The Dental Hygiene program returns this fall.
Comments
Big surprise here! NOT! Seems like every year students keep on getting dinged with hikes. Bet you I could go through there and find out where some wasted money goes! I am not an accountant. But there are differences between wants and needs for CNC. I feel for the students!
I went to Cnc in 1981, then again in 85 and 86.. and you know what…it cost me more each year for school, fees, food, etc.. along with all my other classmates.. did we bitch and main about it, yeah of course, but we also did something about it..we got jobs.. we did what needed to be done to complete our post secondary schooling.. of course some of us came out in debt because of choosing to pursue this education.. but we looked at it as investing in our future..betting on ourselves. Post secondary is a CHOICE…
MISLEADING HEADLINE ALERT – There is a significant difference between Nursing Program and the Nursing Unit Assistant program .. the article states the latter (which is correct) while the headline states the former.
Headline did get my attention though ;)
From the article:-” We have fixed costs that increase on an annual basis like heat, hydro, electricity, everything, including the cost of paper and the cost of U.S. dollars.”
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And each year we work with ‘bigger figures’. To what advantage? Who gains? Or do we ALL lose? Over time the REAL cost of most things has decreased as we become ever more efficient in providing them. Including, one would think, the cost of educating people. Today’s students have access to a far greater volume of information on just about any subject imaginable at the touch of a computer’s keyboard or screen. Libraries that once had to stock voluminous multiple copies of various texts no longer need do that. Teachers can illustrate with the aid of computer technology far more than could ever be illustrated by a blackboard and some chalk. Such is the case in virtually everything we need or want ~ the REAL costs have FALLEN. If they hadn’t, why would technology ever be employed? Yet FINANCIALLY, in all too many if not most instances, we are dinged more. Now why do you suppose that is?
Who cares about the explanation that you continuously provide at ever opportunity. CNC and other organiztions are incapable of influencing the way not only BC, Canada, North America and much of the whole world works.
Tell us how you are going to change it! That would be interesting.
In the meantime the sentence you quoted from the article is the operative one. The other thing is that if they did not increase it by the 2% or close to it, they miss out on it going down the road.
Basically the government is saying the proportion the students pay should be an increasing percentage.
There is an election. Let us see who is going to have a platform which includes the notion of reducing the student portion of tuition fees being reduced by 5% per year over the next 4 years they would be in office and the general population would be taxed more so that the post secondary institutions would not have to cut back on quantity and quality of educational service.
I would think that EVERYONE who pays increased prices for virtually EVERYTHING would care, Gus. But maybe we’re all so conditioned to doing that now that we just accept it. Same as we accept that changes of government don’t really change much of anything. Until enough people get fed up seeing themselves becoming the next ones to slip off the lower rungs of the economic ladder they feel they have nothing to lose by electing something way different, or what seems to be so anyways. And so they get a Trump, and maybe we’ll get a clone of him here. That’s unlikely to work very well long term either. But God forbid we ever even take a look at the real source of our problems ~ that most sacred cow of all sacred cows, our ‘money’ system. Let alone do anything to make it do what it’s supposed to be able to do ~ REFLECT reality.
From the article: “the average tuition at CNC is $2,600 – well below the provincial average of $2,900”
“WELL BELOW”???
30% below would be “well” below. 10% is simply “below”.
The superlative adjective is out of place.
It is, however, good that it is below the average.
Is it the lowest? I doubt it.
Tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador have been frozen since the 2003/2004 school year, as part of a higher education affordability program.
Maybe that’s the kind of program we need in BC! If tuition fees keep going up, only the rich will be able to afford a post secondary education.
I’m not saying that you seem to deliberately leave important information from most of your comments, but it would appear that once again, your panacea does not seem to be all that you crack it up to be and things shouldn’t always be taken at face value!
For example, “Alex Usher, an expert on higher education, is critical of studies sensationalizing the cost of education: “Not because I think they’re wrong on the very narrow issue of what sticker prices of tuition are, but because they deliberately and misleadingly leave out any reference to the $4-billion in tax credits and grants that are spent by governments every year to reduce tuition burden on families.”
He believes these kinds of studies underplay the “true affordability” of university.
ht tp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/newfoundland-reaps-rewards-of-low-tuition-strategy/article14324686/
Any truth to the rumours of a 30% increase to some Memorial University Students mentioned in 2015 for the 2016 year?
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/any-tuition-fee-increase-at-mun-won-t-happen-until-2016-1.3072130
Newfoundland is dealing with a population decline, impacting it’s ability to fill MUN.
“We have a declining birth rate and aging population and we also have less and less students graduating every year from our high schools,”
So, in order to attract people to Memorial University, the province steps in and HEAVILY subsidizing tuition costs! Another way of putting it, is that the taxpayer gets the bill to a greater degree:
Sept 13, 2013 “Government funding makes up 85 per cent ($480-million) of the budget of the province’s only university, Memorial University, with 15 per cent coming from tuition.”
“Elsewhere, Canadian universities receive about 55 per cent of their funding from provincial governments”, so obviously tuition costs make up the bulk of the remaining 45 per cent!
As a taxpayer, I’m not so sure that I want to cover 85 percent of the costs of somebody else’s post secondary education! That is, unless I can convince post secondary graduates to subsidize the cost of my business equipment purchases! I would like a shiny new Dodge diesel 1 ton! Hmmmm, I don’t see anybody lining up to help pay for it!
Quebec also enjoys “lower” tuition costs. In addition, residents of La Belle Province also enjoy low cost universal child daycare!
What’s never mentioned is that both their lower tuition fees and their universal daycare are MASSIVELY subsidized by western Canadian Equalization payments, $11.081 Billion for 2017-2018!
ht tp://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp#Quebec
Want something for nothing? Sure, get find somebody else to pay the bill!
Further to my earlier comment about rumours of increases to Newfoundland’s Memorial Universities tuition fees, here’s a bit more info”
From May 13, 2015
“MUN tuition increases will hit most vulnerable”
“Memorial University is set to increase tuition for international students, graduate students, and medical students, as well as raising residence fees for those living on campus, to try and make up for a $20 million decrease in funding from the provincial government.”
ht tp://theindependent.ca/2015/05/13/mun-tuition-increases-will-hit-most-vulnerable/
So Peeps, it looks like your statement that tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador have been frozen since the 2003/2004 school year is simply not true and should not be considered as the “FACTS AND TRUTHS!
Hope this doesn’t ruin your weekend!
Cheers!
As a taxpayer, I’m not so sure that I want to cover 85 percent of the costs of somebody else’s post secondary education! That is, unless I can convince post secondary graduates to subsidize the cost of my business equipment purchases! I would like a shiny new Dodge diesel 1 ton! Hmmmm, I don’t see anybody lining up to help pay for it!
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The difference, of course, is that our educational system is of critical importance to the overall success of the country. As a result, subsidies would be considered a very wise investment.
A shiny new Dodge diesel 1 ton, on the other hand, is only of critical importance to you, and of course your mechanic after a few years of ownership, LOL :)
My goodness all that research and quotes from newspapers, when this Statistics Canada report says different! Think, I will go with statistics on this one!
ht tp://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2011007-eng.pdf
Might want to look at page 8.
See Hart Guy, my one short comment aimed to come across with pinpoint accuracy, as opposed to your five (5) shot gun comments in a row that does not quite every hit the mark. Yet, engaging in meaningful, high level, debate has never been your strong suit has it?
I’ll stick with the comments from this May 13, 2015 article, thanks!
Check out the protesting students in the photo with the following comment:
“In its 2013 austerity budget the province targeted College of the North Atlantic, privatizing Adult Basic Education. This year’s budget targets MUN’s graduate and international students, as well as those living in residence. Photo by Jon Parsons”
I also will stick with this comment from the same article:
“As reported in the student paper The Muse, and confirmed at a Memorial senate meeting on May 12, 30 per cent tuition increases on international and graduate students will attempt to make up $4.8 million, while 30 per cent increases in residence fees will attempt to make up $1.9 million, or a combined $6.7 million of the $20 million in cuts to the university’s funding.”
Peeps, you’ve stated that “Tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador have been frozen since the 2003/2004 school year”! That statement simply isn’t true!
ht tp://theindependent.ca/2015/05/13/mun-tuition-increases-will-hit-most-vulnerable/
…and what, you don’t believe the comments in this CBC News story?
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/any-tuition-fee-increase-at-mun-won-t-happen-until-2016-1.3072130
I notice the staff, from janitorial to educational, never take a hit… just the students.
Costs go up. The money has to come from somewhere. That’s life.
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