Okanagan College Media Release - Jan. 29, 2008

Tuition fees at Okanagan College will be increasing by the rate of inflation, estimated to be approximately two per cent, in the coming year. The decision was reached Tuesday by the College’s Board of Governors.

“For the past two years, Okanagan College has been the only public post-secondary institution in the province to not raise its fees,” noted Board Chair Janet Shaw. “We face the same inflationary pressures as other institutions and are determined to maintain or improve the quality of service to students. In the final analysis we realize that in order to do that, we need to make allowances for inflation this coming year in our fee structure.”

For a full-time student taking a university arts program at the College, the increase will add approximately $60.36 to a full year’s tuition, bringing the cost to $3,078.36. The average tuition for B.C.’s public post-secondary institutions (including colleges, university colleges, universities and institutes) last year was $3,209.

Among the province’s colleges, tuition for the arts program at Okanagan College is second highest. Capilano College charged $3,120 in 2007-08. BCIT is the highest of the colleges and institutes, charging $4,568 for an arts program. The average tuition for the province’s three university colleges is $3,497, while the province’s universities charge an average of $4,462.

Provincial government policy limits public post-secondary institutions to increase their tuition and other fees by the amount of annual inflation. Before reaching the decision on fees, the Okanagan College Board listened to representation from students, who expressed concern about the impact of the inflationary increase on their ability to afford an education. The Okanagan College Students Association presented a petition of 1,150 signatures to the Board opposing the tuition fee increase.

“We appreciate their situation, but we must safeguard the financial health of the institution and have to ensure its viability and its capacity to offer students the education they expect,” said Shaw. “We won’t finish our budget preparations and deliberations until March, but we already know of more than $400,000 in increased costs this coming year as a consequence of inflation, and we may be facing a budget issue of as much as $1.3 million that will not be covered through an increase in our per-student grant from the province.”

The tuition increase is expected to generate approximately $300,000 in revenue. Okanagan College’s annual budget is approximately $76.5 million.