SFU is proposing a tuition hike for the 2019/2020 school year that will reach as high as 20% for international students in certain degree programs.

The proposed increases for Fall 2019 are as follows:

• All domestic undergraduate students: 2% general increase
• Continuing international undergraduate students: 4% general increase
• Incoming international undergraduate students: 12% general increase, except for those in CS, ENSC, MSE courses who face a 16% increase, and Beedie courses with a 20% increase
• Graduate students: 2% increase, except those with an international differential, where the increase is 4%

Whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student, domestic or international, the price of tuition is already too high, especially since Metro Vancouver is in the middle of an affordability crisis.

SFU is justifying this increase by saying that the university will face budget problems if they do not hike tuition. The truth is that SFU has for many years recorded large budget surpluses exceeding the amount they seek to raise from students, often allocating this extra money to vanity projects and administrative bloat, while sitting on the 16th largest post-secondary endowment in Canada. There is no immediate need for tuition increases.

SFU cannot expect us to come up with the extra cash (forcing many of us to choose between higher education and paying rent or food bills) while individual top-level administrators continue to be paid close to or even more than the compensation of the Prime Minister of Canada. Education should not be a commodity and attainable only by the rich. Students can challenge the tuition hikes through our collective resistance and force the administration to recognize that there are other options!

We call on SFU to:

1. Freeze tuition for all student for two years.

2. Work with students to lobby the provincial government

SFU must commit to freeze tuition for the next two years to ease the burden on students. Large recent budget surpluses mean that the resources are there to absorb any inflationary pressures in the next couple years – we just have to put them to work for students instead of chasing after vanity buildings, higher administrative payrolls and fancy endowment chairs. This freeze will allow time for students, organizations, unions, and the administration to work together to lobby the provincial government. Not only do we want the province to take back control of tuition that they previously gave up, we also believe they should be responsible for funding budget shortfalls – not students. While the tuition hike is a problem in the short term, we recognize the chronic under-funding of public education is the root cause.

Students and allies,

Please share this petition widely and call on SFU for a Tuition Freeze. Tell us your stories and get ready to rally alongside us!

Follow, submit your story, get rally updates and get involved:

https://www.facebook.com/sfutuitionfreezenow/

http://www.tuitionfreezenow.com/

questions: info@tuitionfreezenow.com

Together we can do it! Tuition Freeze Now!