{"id":41130,"date":"2017-12-09T17:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=41130"},"modified":"2017-12-09T17:51:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T00:51:02","slug":"governments-decision-to-extend-tuition-freeze-welcomed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/12\/09\/governments-decision-to-extend-tuition-freeze-welcomed\/","title":{"rendered":"Government’s decision to extend tuition freeze welcomed"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>AIT students are welcoming the news tha post-secondary tuition will remain frozen for the fourth straight year.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he provincial government announced Dec. 7 that tuition and fees at Alberta’s 20 big post-secondary institutions will be unchanged for 2018-19 academic year.<\/p>\n

According to the Government of Alberta<\/a> website, extending the freeze means that “post-secondary education will be more affordable for nearly 250,000 students, both full- and part-time.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that affordable post-secondary education is important to Albertans and is key to our growing economy,” said Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt in a news release.<\/p>\n

“That is why we are freezing tuition for another year as we prepare to bring forward long-term tuition and funding policies in the new year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The average domestic tuition fee for a student at SAIT is about $5,000 per year, and $6,000 at the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n

Phi Nguyen, a first-year student in SAIT’s radio, television and broadcast news program, welcomed the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a relief knowing that I won\u2019t be as heavily in debt to my student loans because of the freeze,\u201d said Nguyen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freeze is definitely helpful for students, but I think lowering tuition fees overall would be more helpful for students across Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Canadian resident students will benefit from the freeze, international students aren’t covered by the policy and could face increases in their tuition.<\/p>\n

Currently international student fees are almost double and in some cases triple the amount of domestic tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the freeze should also apply to international students,” said Tracey Nguyen, an international student in the engineering design and drafting technology program at SAIT.<\/p>\n

“Our tuition is already about three times more. We don\u2019t have enough money and scholarships don\u2019t cover everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tracey Nguyen added that she and other international students came to Canada with hopes of obtaining a better education and can understand why their tuition costs more than that of a Canadian student.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relief knowing that I won\u2019t be as heavily in debt to my student loans because of the freeze – Phi Nguyen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re international students here to study. Our parents don\u2019t pay taxes to the Canadian government. Other students and their families pay taxes.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s only fair that we pay more for using Canadian resources,\u201d said Tracey Nguyen.<\/p>\n

SAIT’s response to the government’s decision was low key.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, spokesperson Chris Gerritsen said, \u201cWe continue to work with the government to ensure students in Alberta haves access to SAIT\u2019s renowned applied-learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alberta Provincial Government has announced that the tuition freeze for post-secondary institutes will continue on into 2018-19 academic year, officially making it the fourth consecutive year. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":416,"featured_media":41138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"Tuition Freeze","footnotes":""},"categories":[711,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41314,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41130\/revisions\/41314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}