• Average university debt: $25K (over twice the government-subsidized loan amount)
• Median university debt: $20K

Undergraduate tuition fees are too high and the government support is too low.

Over 1/3 graduates (36%) owe above $30K after undergraduate education. The median is $20K. That's quite a skew when you remember that the data is bounded at 0 on the left.

The OECD's education report shows a bleak picture of funding and policy surrounding post-secondary education. Some highlights:

• Job/skill centric education fails workers later in life as the seek new employment in a shifting environment.
• Short-term, skills-centric education still pushed but even that policy is muddled in implementation as universities are poor training centres.
• Total spending has not kept pace with growth never mind needs.
• The International student based revenue gamble is failing as students start to avoid OECD countries.
• Employment chances are still highly correlated to education levels, but states continue to under-fund access to PSE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to graduate students across the country. We recognize the steps taken by both the federal and provincial governments, and post-secondary institutions, to protect not just graduate students, but all students, faculty, and staff. These measures include the six-month suspension of student loan repayment and the expansion of the Canada Summer Jobs program. These measures are important steps towards redressing the financial burden on students. However, we would like to emphasize that graduate students are facing additional challenges that have not been addressed.

The Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) filed to intervene in the legal action concerning Ryerson University’s most recent attack on students’ union autonomy.

“Autonomy is central to a students’ union’s ability to effectively represent their membership. Ryerson University has attempted to violate the autonomy and independence of students’ unions through a draconian move to unilaterally terminate the Ryerson Students’ Union Operating Agreement,” said Sofia Descalzi, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students.

Students’ unions, founded by and for students, are fully autonomous organizations governed by democratically elected boards and executives. They are membership-driven organizations funded by their members through dues.

University administrations do not have the authority and cannot justify violating the legal autonomy of students’ unions or any other campus unions.

Regardless of their motives for doing so, university administrations have no right to:

withhold students’ union membership dues;
interfere in students’ union elections or operations; or
attempt to shut down students’ unions (or any other legally autonomous organization).

It is vital that university administrations understand the limits of their authority. As concerned as a university administration might be, they have no right to withhold students’ union membership dues, interfere in a students’ union operations, or dictate the terms by which democratic students’ unions operate on campus.

To avoid the need to rebuild our democratic organizations – and thus waste valuable time – we must defend our current institutions of democracy. We must defend them even though they can, from time to time, be lead by flawed individuals – we are human, after all. It is not the people we defend as leadership can and will be replaced, but the institution. This defense is part of the historical fight for our right to practice and perfect our own democracy.

Today’s announcement from the Vice-Provost Students, Jen McMillen, is an attack on student union autonomy and the right for students to independently organize. 

Calhoun's the president of the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending. For decades he's been keeping watch to protect people from reckless lending. He says that with student loans, just like with the housing crisis, there's no consideration about whether the person getting the loan will be able to repay it.

Ontario’s judiciary threw a pie in the face to Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government on Thursday, when a three-judge panel of the Superior Court quashed a ministerial directive designed to cut down on “crazy Marxist nonsense” on university campuses. Well, that’s the term Ford used in a fundraising email to describe some of the, shall we say, less conspicuously useful activities that Ontario’s student societies occasionally get up to. The stated goal of the “student choice initiative” was more principled, of course: To save students some money, if they so choose, by allowing them to “opt out of ancillary fees related to student associations, products and special services.”

Court quashes a provincial government directive that required Ontario universities and colleges to allow students to opt out of student union fees.

“Today the Ontario Divisional Court has confirmed what students already knew: The Student Choice Initiative is unlawful, and the Ford government acted beyond their authority. Doug Ford’s attempt to wipe out students’ unions under the guise of giving students ‘choice’ has been exposed for what it really was: an attempt to silence his opposition,” said Kayla Weiler, Ontario representative of the Canadian Federation of Students.

(18) CFS-Ontario on Twitter: "We took the Government to court & WON! Today, the Divisional Court released their unanimous decision deeming the SCI unlawful. From the streets, to the court room, the students united, will never be defeated. #WeTheStudents #onpse #onpoli #cfsfcee https://t.co/eefNBYbJLc" / Twitter

Does "political correctness" really crush conservative speech on campus? The data suggests no.

As governments and administrators increasingly run universities like private corporations, academic support workers find their working conditions deteriorating and their jobs threatened. What are the roots of this ideological shift and how can we ensure that all work on campus is valued?