Well, I don't know about Canada, but the rapidly rising cost of tuition in the US is a big problem as well.

Just another squeeze on the middle class. My kids are about done with college but I feel sorry for those families whose kids are 10 or 15 years away.

I'm not sure I understand the reasons behind this.

But it seems to be a vicious circle, perhaps involving loans/financial aid. 

Colleges raise tuition. Kids and families take out more loans to pay or get more financial aid. Colleges take this money, spend it on who knows what, and raise tuitions again.  Repeat.

Can't continue.

Templar wrote:

> Well, I don't know about Canada, but the rapidly rising cost of tuition in the US is

> a big problem as well. [...] I'm not sure I understand the reasons behind this.

I can't speak for private universities, but at public universities and colleges tuition is primarily rising rapidly due to lower public funding.  At the college I work at the tuition doesn't cover the operating costs of the college - we take in less money than the students cost us.  The difference is covered by federal, state, and county funds.  Due to lowered tax revenues (some caused by the economic crunch, some caused by tax cuts) the various levels of government are passing less money to us.  Over the past four years they cut our funds so much that we could have closed one of our three campuses to cover the loss.  So either tuition has to go up to cover it or we have to cut operating expenses.  Unfortunately there are only so many ways to cut operating expenses without impacting the students; sooner or later you're not cutting fat, you're cutting meat or even bone.  At that point tuition skyrockets - we have no mechanism for borrowing money so we can't do deficit spending (and probably just as well).

Of course our tuition costs as a public college are still far lower than at a public university or especially than at a private college or university ... but as a percentage increase, it's still pretty bad.  Add in the fact that many of our students come to us because they were dirt-poor and could never have afforded a pricier institution and things get ugly.  Many of our students literally can't afford the $10-per-credit raise in tuition we've had over the past two years.  That's only $150 more per semester for a full-time student ... and it's still enough to cause many of them to have to drop out of college.

Not sure how to avoid it, given that we've cut everything that can reasonably be cut, we can't do deficit spending, and we keep getting our funds cut by the various levels of government.  Something has to give somewhere, and usually it's tuition.

Jun 13, 2012 -- 9:38AM, TemplarS wrote:

Well, I don't know about Canada, but the rapidly rising cost of tuition in the US is a big problem as well.

Here, the LibDems promised to abolish tuition fees (we're only had them here for about 15 years). Once the Tory/LibDem coalition of bastards got in, they tripled the tuition fees universities could charge. Predictably, almost every university in the country decided they would charge the maximum.

Thank Satan for the Open University, fee textbooks and tuition for the poor. I couldn't afford to study otherwise.

Jun 13, 2012 -- 4:51PM, Ebon wrote:

Jun 13, 2012 -- 9:38AM, TemplarS wrote:

Well, I don't know about Canada, but the rapidly rising cost of tuition in the US is a big problem as well.

Here, the LibDems promised to abolish tuition fees (we're only had them here for about 15 years). Once the Tory/LibDem coalition of bastards got in, they tripled the tuition fees universities could charge. Predictably, almost every university in the country decided they would charge the maximum.

Thank Satan for the Open University, fee textbooks and tuition for the poor. I couldn't afford to study otherwise.

Wait for the educatonal monopoly to shut down the Open/Free Universities, by siezing exclusive domain over certification. You can't have educated serfs, now can you?

Jun 13, 2012 -- 5:30PM, Ebon wrote:

Jun 13, 2012 -- 5:18PM, Roodog wrote:

Wait for the educatonal monopoly to shut down the Open/Free Universities, by siezing exclusive domain over certification. You can't have educated serfs, now can you?

I can entirely see the coalition of bastards granting this. I know the OU went through hell trying to keep the fees at a reasonable level and maintaining free tuition/textbooks for the poor. But the Tory scum are old-style, they don't want the lower classes having a good education. They think we should be happy to be factory workers.

Note: This is not to disparage anyone who does manual labour. It's just not for everyone.

I could see the entire Government education system (K-PHD)being closed or privatized. A literate society demands freedom, and if the people have limited access to information, either printed or electronic, they can be be easily persuaded, manipilated and ultimately controlled.