The University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) wishes to commend the University of
Regina’s decision of a 0% increase in tuition fees for the upcoming 2020/2021 academic
year. The decision has brought a sigh of relief to the students who are facing significant
economic pressures during this unprecedented time due to the global pandemic.
We hope that at a time of great economic uncertainty throughout the world, this year’s
budget will provide much needed stability to the students. However, tuition is already at
a record high and has increased above the rate of inflation over the last decade, which
means that even before the pandemic, students were under significant financial distress.
While URSU welcomes this very pleasing news, we remain concerned about a long-term
plan to tackle the rising cost of tuition fees. We hope that the government and the
university will take this time to work with URSU on coming up with such a plan for
students.
As remote learning continues for the spring/summer semester, students are facing
difficulties accessing the necessary study materials. Therefore, URSU is also calling on
the government and university to increase access to open educational resources, which
would help alleviate the current barriers to accessing study materials being faced by an
already financially overburdened student body. Expanding and enhancing the use of
open educational resources will accelerate learning and will also add value to knowledge
production in general.
We at URSU, and all entities involved, understand that having a generation of students
strapped down by financial debt is not beneficial to the long-term health of our economy
or the overall mental health of our society. As always we will continue to advocate for
any measures that strengthen the economic, educational, and emotional status of our
members.
On behalf of URSU and its Board of Directors
Gurjinder Singh Lehal,
URSU President
pres@ursu.ca
