Imagine you walk into a store wanting to purchase a loaf of bread and the store clerk tells you that regardless of how many loaves of bread you want, you have to pay for three. When you tell the clerk that you only want to pay for one loaf of bread, he tells you that you can have one, two or three loaves of bread, but that you will have to pay for three. To soften the blow, the clerk suggests that if you wish, you can have four loaves of bread, and you can even take the fourth one for free, but regardless of how many loaves of bread you want, you will still have to pay for three. This is the story of flat tuition fees.

In the spring of 2009, the Faculty of Arts and Science Council (FASC) voted and ratified a motion made by the Program Fee Implementation Committee (PFIC) to implement program fees (flat tuition fees) for all incoming students who take between three and six full credit equivalents (FCEs). The flat tuition fee model was passed at Governing Council on May 20th, 2009, despite widespread community opposition. It was passed with the understanding that an evaluation of the impact of the model would be presented to the Governing council in the spring of 2011 to determine whether or not the flat tuition fee would be continued.