In Canada, free post-secondary tuition has been heavily debated for decades, so why hasn’t Canada ever tried it out? With Canadian students collectively owing over $28 billion in student loans, it is no wonder that students remain in debt for years. With the rise of inflation, it is getting more difficult by the year for students to get out of school debt free. Frieda Richards in a Global News interview states that “67 percent of Canadians are graduating with some form of student debt”, this debt is not only from student loans but also from paying for living expenses which adds to consumer debt from line of credit, credit cards and bank loans. With tuitions fees growing exponentially, there seems to be is no sign of BC moving towards free tuition or even lowing their interest rates. As a student myself, I will have to pay over $7,500 in interest fees alone, on top of my $15,000 loan, and I am not even done school yet. There are claims that the federal government is using interest fees on student loans as a source of revenue that is projected to earn approximately $862.6 million in revenue from the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) in 2018. In addition, public records show student loan interest rates used to be around $650 million in prior years. Unfortunately, as student debt piles up it makes it difficult for people to start their lives on a clean slate. Hence, if Canada joined countries like France and Slovenia, and adopted the free post-secondary model, it could benefit students, but also could come with some downsides. Tuition would be paid for entirely by the tax payer’s dollars. This means that if public budgets fail to keep pace with the demand of payment, then schools will have to have to limit the number of students or sacrifice the quality of teaching. Contrarily, while overcrowding seems to be an issue with free post-secondary institutions, within the G-7, the four countries that charge college tuition have higher education attainment rates. Another option is for Canada to create a better way for students to repay their loans. Take Australia for example, who started a program in 1989 that links loan payments to the student’s income. Students pay a low interest rate equal to inflation and are exempt from payments until they earn AU$55,874. They only pay a flat percentage of all their income, once their income exceeds the threshold. In the end, when it comes to deciding whether post-secondary tuition should be free, I would say no, however, paying back your student loans should not be as difficult or expensive as it is. As a student who has racked up a hefty student loan bill, sometimes I wish it was free. However, the fact that countries who have tuition fees have high attainment rates, and the fact that I have to pay for it out of my own pocket, makes me appreciate and work twice as hard.
