U of M hikes tuition by maximum amount allowed under new legislation

Students at the University of Manitoba will pay hundreds of dollars more for their tuition when they return to school in the fall.

On Tuesday, the university's board of governors approved a 6.6 per cent tuition increase for all students enrolled in 2018-19 classes.

That translates to an average of $260 for domestic students taking a full course load, and $1,036 for international students, the University of Manitoba Students' Union said in a news release Wednesday.

The increase comes after the provincial government passed legislation that scrapped a cap on post-secondary tuition, allowing institutions to hike fees by five per cent, plus the current Consumer Price Index, which is 1.6 per cent.

That adds up to a 6.6 per cent increase.

The University of Winnipeg hiked its tuition by the same amount last month.

UMSU president Jakob Sanderson and vice-president of advocacy Sarah Bonner-Proulx, who both sit on the university's board of governors, voted against the increase.

"UMSU believes a more reasonable approach could have been taken that did not include the maximum increase allowed under provincial law which is higher than the average provincial increase rate, in any Western Canadian province, since 2012," UMSU said in the release.

The student union called on the university and province to reduce financial barriers for students through measures like making free educational resources available in classrooms rather than requiring students to buy textbooks.