be Douglas College Set for Expansi New Courses and Programs Campuses a Cutting Edge Nicole Burton, OP News Editor Douglas College has recently added several programs and acac opportunities to the table for students to pursue. For the first time ever, students can enroll in a full Bachelc program in Nursing and Psychiatric Nursing at the school. Th for a total of 6 different full BA programs available at Dougla within the last three years. According to Brad Barber, director of Douglas College Communications and Marketing, the new additions are alread; good response, with 67 new nursing students enrolled this ser More will be added next year, as new programs and course in the works. This will include an opportunity to get a Bachelk Business Administration, with options of specializing in eithe: Accounting or Finance; a Bachelor’s of Physical Education, as other citation courses for degrees related to Social Work. One course in particular, called “Co-occuring Disorders” 1 first of its kind in the province. It will give students more infc and training in social work that involves work around people « both by drug addiction and a mental illness. Besides Nursing, Douglas’ most popular programs are cur Sports Sciences, Child and Youth Care, Childhood Education, several transfer credit courses like Criminology and Psycholog B.C. Tuition Fees Higher Than National Avera Statistics Canada Policy of yearly increases means tuition fees will continue rising, CFS says Julie Chadwick, The Navigator (Malaspina University-College) NANAIMO, B.C. (CUP)—A report released by Statistics Canada Sept. 1 revealed that university students in British Columbia’s tuition fees are over $600 more than the national average. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, this is a result of a government-implemented fee increase policy that saw the rate of tuition pegged to the rate of inflation. Over the last four years, tuition at B.C. public and private post-secondary institutions have more than doubled, said Canadian Federation of Students spokesman Shamus Reid. “Now, with a policy of yearly increases in place, students can expect to pay more and more than the average Canadian, for the foreseeable future,” he said. Until 2002, there was a freeze on tuition fees for students. The government then deregulated fees and it was subsequent- ly the jurisdiction of universities and colleges to set the rates of tuition. In 2004, the government implemented a cap on tuition fees, tying increases to the rate of inflation. However, Reid argues that the cost is already too high, and increases at the rate of inflation will mean students will pay a combined $18 million more this year. “In every other area where government regulates prices, the policy is designed to ensure that costs remain affordable, improving access to a necessary service,” said Reid. “The B.C. government's tuition fee policy throws that logic completely out the window by setting the price of education far too high for ordinary British Columbians.” While B.C’s economy is booming right now, Reid says that this does not mean more money in students’ pockets, as pay rates have not increased. Students may not have more money, “but the B.C. govern- 4 THE OTHER PRESS SEPTEMBER 28 2006 ment does, and has the fiscal capacity to reduce fees.” According to Reid, it would only take $92 mil- lion of the government’s reported $3.5 billion sur- plus to reduce fees for students in B.C. by 10 per cent. The CFS will be lobbying for this fee reduction as part of their long-standing campaign to reduce tuition fees for students. They are also lobbying for more accountability and transparency within the fed- eral government — namely through the creation of a Minister of Post-Secondary Education to oversee es funding issues and ensure fees are still affordable for y adte rit) the majority of students. stp “Ideally,” said Reid, “the federal and provincial governments would see they have a responsibility to provide people of B.C. and Canada with education. Primary and secondary schooling were initially pro- vided for free because it was seen that people needed education to compete in the workforce and to have a functional economy.” Reid said that with an estimated 70 per cent of all new jobs in Canada requiring some post-secondary education, it is becoming a necessity for the govern- ment to provide affordable options for people seek- ing to enter the workforce. “In the best-case scenario, [post-secondary educa- tion] would be free, as it is becoming more and more of a necessity to work. I don’t expect this to happen tomorrow, but it is possible within a balanced approach over coming years that would see sustained tuition fee decreases.”