Students who have just arrived back at university and college for the new semester need to face a hard truth: they aren’t contributing enough towards their education. It’s time for tuition fees to rise.

The reality is that Canadian post-secondary students have been getting an easy ride for the last decade and a half as international students paid a big chunk of the bills. When adjusted for inflation, Canadian undergraduate students pay less in tuition now than they did in 2019. With the massive cutbacks in international student permits, it’s essential that domestic students contribute more in order to protect the health of their institutions and ensure they can still deliver quality education.

The federal government’s reduction of the number of international students, which began two years ago, has caused a financial crisis for universities and colleges. Classes and programs – even entire campuses – have been cut, and thousands have lost their jobs. While some of the cuts were unavoidable, the bleeding needs to stop so young people can continue to find spots in post-secondary institutions in their chosen fields of study, with reasonable class sizes and sufficient staff support.

McGill University in downtown Montreal. The Quebec government is trying to raise tuition for out-of-province Canadians, while keeping the rates for locals low – about half the national average.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

Universities and colleges make massive contributions to the country and to the economy. They need a lifeline, and a sizeable portion of the funds should come from those who benefit from them the most. Students with university degrees or college diplomas make substantially more money after graduation than those without them, and they tend to come from wealthier families to begin with.

The amount students pay in tuition has fallen below inflation in recent years. As shown in the chart below, the national average that undergraduates pay in tuition dropped in 2019, driven by the 10-per-cent tuition cut and subsequent freeze by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government.

After inflation, average national undergraduate fees are now roughly where they were in the 2013-14 academic year. There has been a gradual rise in that average over the last couple of years, but it’s

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