Tuition hike recommended for all Dalhousie students

Expect tuition to rise again next year. (Photo by Kit Moran)

If you checked your Dalhousie email yesterday, you know: budget time is upon us.

The university’s Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) has released their report making recommendations to the university’s president on the upcoming budget.

So far, not so good for students.

If the recommendations were implemented, all students would see a tuition hike of three per cent, with dentistry and medicine being hit even harder.

Effective September 2014, incoming students to dentistry and medicine would see a total annual tuition increase of nine per cent and five per cent, respectively, over four years. This would mean an additional increase of six per cent for dentistry students, and an additional two per cent for those studying medicine. Dentistry’s tuition alone would grow by more than a third in the span of a four-year degree, at 39 per cent. Medicine would jump 20 per cent.

The BAC began consultations this past fall. While their recommendations to make up for the university’s $10.1 million shortfall aren’t binding, they give a good idea of what’s to come.

Nova Scotia has announced a one per cent increase totalling $1.6 million to the university’s operating budget. This brings Dal’s budget to a new total of $174 million, after previous government slashed it by 10 per cent in only three years.

The report itself is 37 pages long, with several appendixes. The Gazette will provide a fuller analysis in the days to come.