University enrolment in Canada has increased by more than 20 per cent in the past five years, while the average tuition costs have reached $4,024 and the average national entering grade is now 84 per cent, says a report commissioned by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation.
“The demand for post-secondary education is higher than it's ever been,” said Sean Junor, co-author of the report entitled The Price of Knowledge 2004: Access and Student Finance in Canada. “But accessing post-secondary studies remains a challenge for some Canadians, particularly for those already underrepresented in the classroom, such as low-income Canadians and Aboriginal peoples.”
Another report, called The Study of Accessibility to Ontario Law Schools, surveyed law students and lawyers, who studied law in Ontario between 1997 and 2004 and found little change in student demographics following the Ontario government's deregulation of tuition for professional programs in 1997.
According to the study commissioned by five Ontario law school deans and funded by the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Law Foundation of Ontario, 60 per cent of law school graduates have a cumulative debt of less than $40,000 upon graduation.
Related Links:
Study examines impact of tuition increases on law students
(News release issued on November 9, 2004)
