A few days ago I got caught up in a heated debate with a colleague over one of the more pressing issues facing young Canadians: Who should pay for post-secondary education? My colleague felt that because an educated society is in the interest of all Canadians, post-secondary education should be entirely free for qualified students. I argued that the private gain of those with more education (higher salary, more opportunity) dictates that students should contribute some portion of their education expense.
At present, our system is funded by a mix of government funding and students who pay tuition. This mix, and the total amount of funding per student, varies considerably by province. The recent protests in Quebec over tuition increases served to highlight to much of Canada how different these current numbers are. At the low end, the average Quebec tuition in the 2011-2012 year was $2,519. At the high end, the average tuition in Ontario was $6,640.
To put these numbers in context, the student portion of the total education expense in Canada ranges from roughly 12% in Newfoundland to roughly 31% Nova Scotia (Quebec comes in second to Newfoundland on the low end, Ontario second to Nova Scotia on the high end). These numbers are taken from Statistics Canada and are from the 2008/2009 year so the exact percentages may have changed somewhat, but the underlying trends likely remain roughly the same.
So where does the benefit lie between public good and private gain? The OECD estimates that the "net public return" on investment in university is $52,000 USD for men and $27,000 USD for women, whereas the private gain averages $186,000 USD for men and $134,000 USD for women as an average across OECD countries.
Given these numbers, a few things seem clear: Financially speaking, students gain a great deal more benefit from their education than society and pay a small fraction of the total cost. However, from a qualitative standpoint, having higher earning, educated and engaged citizens certainly benefits society on more than a financial level.
While I think that tuition increases are necessary in some instances to keep up with the increased cost of providing quality education, I think that government policy in this area should focus on long-term competitiveness and social well being. While I disagree with the protesters in Quebec on what constitutes affordable education, I do think this conversation needs to be had in the public discourse to ensure that the Canada of tomorrow is the place we want it to be.
