Premier Christy Clark will need to make colleges and universities more affordable if she wants to develop a viable job-creation strategy, says NDP advanced education critic Michelle Mungall.
Clark failed to address the issue when she rolled out a portion of her strategy at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops this week, focussing instead on doubling the number of international students attending B.C.'s post-secondary schools.
"The premier did not address the top issues facing students in this province and those issues are around affordability," Mungall said Wednesday when she was in Prince George to meet with students at College of New Caledonia (CNC) and University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
B.C. students pay an interest rate of 2.5 per cent plus prime, which is the highest in the country, and there is no financial needs grants program in place. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average B.C. graduate has $27,000 in student debt.
A full-time undergraduate student at UNBC pays $4,629 per year in tuition, a two-per-cent hike from last year, and at CNC a student pays about $2,200 a year on average, where there was no increase.
"Students all across the province, including right here in Prince George, have been very clear that they want to see tuition addressed, they want to see grants addressed and they want to see interest rates on student loans addressed," Mungall said.
Mungall also hopes to see targetted programs for aboriginal students when Clark fully presents the strategy in Vancouver this afternoon.
Mungall, the MLA for Nelson Creston, dismissed Clark's promise to double the number of international students as something that already exists.
"There is already a lot of work being done to attract international students here," Mungall said.
