Alberta post-secondary fees some of Canada's highest, study finds

While the cost of post-secondary tuition in Alberta isnt predicted to rise as steeply as some other provinces, its the sky-high compulsory fees that students and parents will really notice, a researcher says.

According to a report released on Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the average cost of tuition and compulsory fees for Canadian undergraduate students will rise by almost 13 per cent over the next four years.

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In Alberta the increase is predicted to be nineper cent.

But when theCCPAresearchers compared numbers province by province, they found some of the highest compulsory fees in the country are charged by schools in Alberta, where they are unregulated.

Hiking those fees is how some schools make up for government cuts to university funding, saidCCPAresearcher DavidMacdonald.

The fact is, is that if you cap tuition fee increases for universities, but you don't increase the funding that they get from the provincial government even today about 50 per cent of funding for university comes from provincial government then you are squeezing the universities, he said.

U of C tuition hike possible

Tuition increases in Alberta are supposed to be limited to the consumer price index.

But Alberta post-secondary schools can ask the government for permission to raise tuition at a faster rate for some programs, Macdonald said.

The University of Calgary is considering doing that for its engineering, law and MBA programs.

University of Calgary Provost Dru Marshall says while the school might charge higher fees than some, it also offers more free services.

"Counselling, transcripts there are a variety of things that people pay for service, and they don't do that on our campus," Marshall said.

Tuition has almost tripled on average across Canada over the last 20 years, the CCPA said.