The AMS is in the process of creating a policy to better advocate to the university for lower tuition.
Although the society opposed UBC's decision to increase tuition for international students, UBC still passed the 10 per cent increase for international students at the beginning of December. Now, the AMS hopes to revamp its advocacy strategy to push for decreased tuition and better address any potential tuition issues in the future.
According to VP Academic Anne Kessler, the AMS hopes to achieve this goal with a new, more robust tuition policy.
Kessler explained that the previous policy set the official AMS stance with regards to tuition, saying that the student body was in favour of lowering tuition as long as this was matched by increases in provincial funding. It also stated AMS opposition to increases above the two per cent provincial government cap for local students and the usual three per cent yearly increase for international students.
This policy expired in August 2014 and was not immediately renewed mostly due to logistical issues. Still, the AMS wanted to make sure that the new policy better reflects the results of the January 2014 referendum when 90 per cent of voters wanted the AMS advocate for lower tuition to the university. According to Kessler, previous tolerance for relatively modest increases has since stopped.
“The new policy is a bit stronger and says that we’re not okay with any increases," said Kessler. "In January we had a student referendum, so this policy is more in line with what the referendum said."
The new policy is meant to both state the official AMS position on tuition and also empower student executives to have greater advocacy power, but the society's stance on fees will stay the same.
“We’ve always lobbied the government for more funding for university, so I think that will continue, so that’s not a big change,” said Kessler.
Although this policy won’t be used to target past fee increases, including last year’s, Kessler said it will help cases in the future.
“It’s not so much the policy but what we do with it," said Kessler. "I think we’ve always worked really hard to advocate for lower tuition, but the reason that we have policies is to agree on what we stand for."
The new policy is still undergoing final edits and is pending the approval of the AMS council, but if all goes well, it should take effect soon. According to Kessler, the revised policy will help the AMS continue the fight for fair tuition rates and affordable education.
“I think we’ll be more aware that [tuition increases] are more likely to happen in the future, and the university has told us that there will be more increases for next year, program by program," said Kessler. "Right now we are trying for them to get to talk to us earlier, and so far what I’ve seen is that they’ve heard those concerns and are trying to be better, so we’ll see."
Share this article
