Which province and major is the cheapest to study in Canada?

The cost of a university degree in Canada is getting steeper as the tuition fees have continue to rise up. From 2006/2007 to 2019/2020, the tuition fees of Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario have risen up for more than 50% change.

Why tuition is continuing to going up? In the article, “A vicious cycle: Why tuition is so high and will likely keep going up” by Erica Alini for Global News, it discussed several reasons that why tuition fees is so high and talked about what action students and families will take to study in university while tuition fees will likely going up. A June report by RBC authored who is economist Gerard Walsh said that” The major driver of rising tuition is changes in the way universities are funded. In the mid-1970s provincial governments were directly funding three-quarters of the cost of pursuing a university degree. Since 1990, the government’s share of university funding has fallen by nearly half, while the cost of tuition at Canadian universities has nearly tripled in inflation-adjusted terms.”

Also, the government is asking universities to find the ways to help students with scholarships and student aid and offering free tuition for low-income students in some cases and students loans. All of this shift put pressure on universities and leads to tuition fees increases.

However, without looking at the percentage change, we look at the absolute tuition fees in different provinces to see which are the most and which are least expensive.

In 2019/2020, the tuition fees in Nova Scotia is $8,368 which is highest and studying in Newfoundland and Labrador is $3,038, the cheapest provinces.

The tuition fees is highest in Nova Scotia is because the government allowed a local university to increase three per cent per year for undergraduate students in 2015 and it is discussed in the article which is written by Sarah Richie in Global News.

Also, another article is written by Peter Cowan in CBC news is talked about why the tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador is so cheapest. The reason is because tuition freeze in Newfoundland and Labrador began in 1999, thus the tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador cannot increase while other provinces’ tuition fees are still increasing. Then, Newfoundland and Labrador becomes the cheapest province for studying in university.

As the different provinces have the different tuition fees, the different fields of study also have the different tuition fees.

In the 2019/2020 academic year, individual who pick to study in Dentistry would need to pay as much as $21,717. That is the highest average tuition fees in Canada, and it followed by in Medicine which is $14,162 and in Law which is $12,388.

At the other end of the spectrum are degrees in education, which cost less than $4,624 a year on average and it is the cheapest fields of study.

Overall, since the tuition fee is continuing going up each year, there is a great financial stress growing at the same time on Canadian undergraduate students. Fortunately, students and families can get some help footing the gargantuan school bill by received non-repayable financial support such as scholarships, bursaries, government grants and tax credits.