There is at least one thing that the University of British Columbia’s Law Students’ Society and the law school can agree on: rumours of a $6,000 tuition hike next year is a complete fallacy.
According to Ted Murray, president of the UBC Law Students’ Society, the $6,000 figure comes from a proposal UBC’s law faculty had on the way until the provincial government implemented a two-per-cent tuition cap in 2005.
The assumption now is that if the cap is lifted, $6,000 tuition may not be far into the future because of increased costs to the school.
According to the law school and student law society, the government has no plans drawn out to do so.
“This issue is completely speculative,” says Murray. “Two per cent would be the most tuition would increase for next year, as of right now.”
Both Murray and Penny Elton, communications co-ordinator for the law school, told Canadian Lawyer 4 Students that the $6,000 figure is completely unrelated to current talks about tuition increases, and is likely linked to speculation about a tuition hike five years ago.
“It is important to note that many comments attributed to the Faculty of Law which are related to a possible tuition increase have been printed out of context and are in fact likely references to a past proposal mentioned in 2004-05, prior to the implementation of the cap,” says Elton.
Currently, UBC has no position on increasing tuition, and will not move forward with any formal plans while the tuition cap is in place, according to Elton.
“There is no current plan in place, or in development, to raise tuition at the Faculty of Law,” says Elton. “As long as the tuition cap is in place, the Faculty of Law does not have a position on raising tuition, and any discussion of what a plan might look like should the cap be lifted would be highly speculative and very premature.”
