Hello fellow suckers of the system:

It was on my mind the other day.  Being in university and now being out of it.  Two different worlds.  One thing that I recalled that bothered me extremely... Why is it that a canadian student has to pay about 5000 in tuition, while a foreign student has higher tuition for the same courses and diploma?

Why?  There are official reasons.  But arent all students attending the same courses, at the same school?  So, if for example, a russian student who could have had a 'tuition free' education in Russia, comes to canada to get a degree, they are paying about 7000 in tuition for the same course.  Does Canada feel that they can impose higher costs to these students because they should have surplus cash and that Canada can turn an extra profit?

Isnt it just like the economy and job situation?  You see it in movies, so see it in real life.  Its how immigrants are let into Canada.  For example, a person or family wants to leave India, so they stand at the embassy of Canada and see posh surrounding, lavish big screen tvs, they are told Canada is the place to be - the greatest place to live in the planet, that it is multicultural and that Canada accepts people with open arms.

Well, then the immigrant gets to Canada.  The immigrant is required to have extensive education, extensive cash on hand and in short, to be rich, highly educated and be able to live on saved cash for years and years, which many immigrants do when they come here.

The immigrant comes to Canada and gets stuck with a bad job.  Works 2-3 jobs and cant live as well as they did in their own country.  The immigrant probably gets depressed, considers moving back cause good, high paying jobs are unfortunately not give to people of non-white color.  But they cant go back, because they will feel shamed and not accepted back in their community.  And all the other problems that come with going back.

How is the immigrant that different from the low to middle class Canadian student that different.  We are both stuck in a system that is based on money and contacts.  A system where money helps money.  If you have excess cash, you can get a decent education and you can get a decent job and live a decent life.  If you are not born in to a rich family, you will live paycheck to paycheck and wonder if you have enough money to get through the next week til the next small paycheck.

Canada is wonderful and yet it is horrible..  You get stuck in a maze.  For anyone with money, Canada is a dream.  Just dont go looking for the American dream if you are not rich.  Cause, honestly, I dont know if you can get there. 

I live in Toronto, everyday I see people coming and going.  We are taxed out of our minds and costs go up and up. People coming in the country, people going out of the country.  Like a global casino.  If you get lucky baby, drop me a line.  Ill hear the machine go off, and you can cash your chips and be an exception to the rule.

If youre Canadian, if you have a good family safety net, then you are blessed.  If someone created a unviersity savings for you, then you are blessed.  If you get stuck without it, then life is a constant struggle.  What job is safe in Canada.  Osap is a horrible machine.  They represent what is available but what is truly not available.

Who can afford to borrow 30 000 dollars then pay it back 6 months after you get your degree.  What if you cant get a decent job.  I have a friend that owers 12000 dollars and Osap made a deal with her that she has to pay 150 per month for the next 10 years.  10 YEARS!!! Thats disgusting.  Im ashamed of the school system.  Cant we pay overpaid teachers less. Cant the cost of education cost what is should. I can educate myself at home for pennies.  What is the problem here? 

In poor countries education is free.  In rich countries, education is too expensive.  Who is the education system weeding out? 

Its frustrating.  Ive never felt like such a number, a statistic, before in all my life.

Look around you people, there are problems.  Who is working at tim hortons, who works at walmart , who drives the cabs and who works at all the low level jobs?  The system wants this, and creates this economy on purpose.

Underqualified people at high paying jobs and overqualifited people at low paying jobs.  Everyone stuck in between. 

 Torontoguy,

 This might shed some light.

  http://www.cpj.ca/refugees/02/studloan.pdf - http://www.cpj.ca/refugees/02/studloan.pdf

Johnny

Johnny, you post (and link)goes in favour of TOguy was saying. Differential fees for foreign students are just a bad idea. High tuition fees are a bad idea.

i'd like to add my two bits to this argument: In regards to university fees, we've been sold on the idea that tuition equals the university operating costs divided by the number of students. The Ministry of Education tells us that in fact that they are subsidizing students. Foreign students, they argue, are paying the real cost of a university education.

Universities, of course, are much more than producing record number of BAs, BScs, etc. It has to do with RD, education spending (which is later used to pump up Canada in UN indexes), and likely the most important: keeping the university machine/industry running. Like all bureaucracies, universities need to justify themselves. In the social sciences this has become perverse: universities compete for  offering 'popular courses' (nevermind educating) and academics align themselves with whatever popular trend may be blowing. If you doubt me, look up SSHRC proposals in google and see what turns up.

And this doesn't even broach the topic of why universities don't teach more usable subjects like medicine, engineering, or even law to more people. Sure I love my social science subject, but as Mr. TOguy says, I could have read the same 40 books that I read for my degree at home and came away the same idea for pennies.  A BA is a farce. And a BA that costs $40,000 is a sham.

As for selling the Canadian dream, there is an internal factor as well. Telling Canadians that they live in next-to-eden has kept us complacent. How many billboards did you see during the 1990s proclaiming that we're No.1? Things had to worse outside of Canada we thought. Don't get me wrong, things are not hellish in Canada, but they're not easy. Just think of child poverty, people living below the poverty line, high (and hidden) unemployment... or whatever you're favourite beef may be.

thank you for your well thought reply zafire, youre absolutely right...

i truly enjoy what u added, my respect goes out to ya

torortoboy

I wonder if the people at Citizens for Public Justice - http://www.cpj.ca/ - http://www.cpj.ca/   are aware of the the student loan problem such as those talked about on this site? They should take this into consideration before lobbying for giving Student Loan to refugees! Their comments make a Student Loan sound like a real solution to a problem. We know it could end up creating an even worse situation for a student! On the other hand, sad to say, the more people in the same boat, the more likely the government will have to do something about it!

Hey Citizens for Public Justice, you stand for public justice, human rights! How about helping this group, we could really use some "Public Justice"! We need the blinders taken off the bureaucrats so they can see what is really going on! Please step in and help us.. WE aren't refugee, only 3rd, 4th or 5th. what ever citizens of Canada with no rights!

Check out their website http://www.cpj.ca/ - http://www.cpj.ca/  , there are email address for the site and people in the organization. Send them all email asking the to help us, we could really use justice and attention to how our human rights have been abused!

Casey...

I would like to add my comment to this.

In Canada, if you decided you wanted to open a school to teach people how to put the perfect hamburger together, nobody would stop you.

You could then charge $6000.00 per year for tuition, make it a 2 year course, and sit back and get rich.

The government would grant people student loans to attend your educational institution.

You could probably retire after a few years of teaching, and all of your graduates could get jobs at McDonald's. They could then work for minimum wage, and default on their loans because they just couldn't afford to pay them back.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

This is a valid problem with people attending private schools that have government designations. My biggest beef (no pun intended) is the tuition charged for hairdressing courses, and the earning potential right after graduating.

amynic

Thanks TorontoBoy... I only wish that these sorts of arguments could make it into the Globe & Mail.

BTW, sorry about the grammar mistakes... someone has turned off the edit option. 

its torontoboy26, to the rescue again

hi freaks and geeks,

just to let u know, today, right now, i just feel like a statistic,

i used to love to read all the time, i had ambitions and hopes, those all went down the toilet, now i just go through the routine, yes, i wake up in the morning and i know the collection agency numbers by heart and my cell phone is on vibrate so i dont answer those, i just feel a warm vibratey feeling whenever they call, its way better than an annoying ring.,...yes, i m catching a nice cool buzz from my cell phone,

as i meet more and more foreign students, as i see more and more 20 year olds drive beamers that there daddys pay for, as learn more and more of rich immigrants doing well (financially) in school, it just makes sense...

to come to canada and study as compared to the suicidal student ambitions of those in china, canada is a joke, thats what the joke is actually.. the mechanism is this, at least to others in other countries around the world, .. you want to get rid of your kids and blow lots of money, send them to the land of opportunity and get them a nice paper saying they got a degree in accounting or something...then bring them back to your country.. while canada cashes in...

canada doesnt give a damn for canadians, they dont care if the tuition is too high, its not that much different than rent in toronto,, the canadian system is unaffordable to the lower classes,, that is, not high wage earning families, single invidividuals with no family support and so on.,  but hell, if your parents are rich, if you live at home and if you come from where ever else, you can afford 10 000 a year , for beginners to get a nice piece of paper, saying that you got a degree

and that oh ya, canada cashed in on you,

congrats,,,,