Agriculture students among those impacted
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
The cost of an education at Dalhousie, the largest university in Nova Scotia, is going up.
A budget committee at the university recommended a three per cent tuition increase across the board, but some programs are being affected more than others.
Students currently enrolled or thinking about enrolling in agriculture studies could see an increase of 18.9 per cent spread over three years; engineering and pharmacy students could also face a tuition hike of about 15 per cent over the same time period.
By the time fall semester comes, tuition for agriculture students, which is around $5,083, could go up by $565 to total $5,648.
Robyn McCallum, president of the Dalhousie Agricultural Students’ Association, told CBC Nova Scotia that he recognizes expenses are going up but an increase of nearly 20 per cent isn’t reasonable.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said the government is doing its part to fund Dalhousie and other institutions in the province.
Dalhousie will receive about $215 million from the provincial government this year, which equals about 52 per cent of the school’s revenue.
According to a report by Stats Canada, full-time students in undergraduate programs paid an average of $6,191 in tuition for the 2015/16 academic year – up from $5,998 a year earlier.
The report shows that “agriculture, natural resources and conservation” undergraduate students pay between $5,000 and $6,000 in tuition fees.
The highest cost field of study shown is dentistry, whose undergrad students pay between $15,000 and $20,000.