It’s that time of year again! August means registering for classes, getting ready for the new school year, and dreading the huge payments looming on the horizon. Many students across the country will soon be saying goodbye to their summer earnings as they pay for tuition, textbooks, and residence fees. But with tuition on the rise in Canada, how do we compare to schools around the world?

Fees vary depending on your school, your province, and your program, but the current trend across Canada is that tuition is increasing. We can still consider ourselves lucky compared to our neighbors to the south; at some of the more prestigious colleges in the United States, tuition can cost over $30,000 a year. For example, undergraduate students at Harvard University will be paying $33,313 in tuition for the 2008/2009 school year. In comparison, undergraduate students at the University of Toronto will be paying between $4,776 and $8,655.

But the North-American trend for pricey education isn’t followed everywhere. Universities in many European countries such as France, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Poland are tuition-free, and in general even the post-secondary institutions that do charge fees are much less costly in Europe than in Canada. Whereas the average cost of tuition for an undergraduate university student in Canada was $4,524 for the 2007/2008 school year, in the Netherlands it was $2,449, in Spain students paid between $875 and $1,433, and in Portugal tuition was only $796. Post-secondary education is also free in a few non-European countries, such as Cuba and Lybia, and in many other countries government subsidies cover most or all of the cost of education.

Although some countries have free post-secondary education, this often means that they can afford to cover the costs of fewer students. A post-secondary education can be very difficult to attain in a tuition-free system because of limited space in schools. In Canada we have to pay our own way, but because of this there are more opportunities to extend our academic careers. Some may argue that this only means that a post-secondary education has become something that the richest rather than the brightest can attain, and whether or not we are better off with our current system is a matter of some debate. But we have to keep in mind that while Canada does have fairly costly tuition and other fees, we also have many financial aid resources for those of us who can’t afford to pay for our education entirely out of our own pockets.

Our federal and provincial governments offer a wide variety or grants, bursaries, and loans to help out students with financial need. You can learn more about these opportunities by visiting www.canlearn.ca. Most post-secondary institutions also offer automatic entrance scholarships to reward academic achievement, and many of these are renewable for several years. If you don’t qualify for entrance scholarships or government aid but still need some extra cash to help pay your way through school, there are other options. Most banks offer special interest rates and payment programs for student loans that can be worth a closer look, but as you know, it’s always best to get money for school that you don’t have to pay back! This means scholarships, so don’t forget to check your mailbox at www.studentawards.com to find the latest awards!

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metin wrote:	can i get a studying and how much cost in year ? Posted on May 11, 2011 at 06:17

 

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