Over the past ten years members of the Vancouver Island University Students Union and members of the Canadian Federation of Students have successfully won many victories that would not have been won without our collective efforts through our democratic organisations.  Please take the time to review some of the more prominent achievements listed below:

Canada’s First National System of Grant (Fall 2009)
The Canadian Federation of Students has long been a strong advocate for the creation of a Canadian Grants Program. After aggressive lobbying that included on site meetings with Members of Parliament (MP’s), active lobbying of all parties of the minority Government and aggressive media work drawing attention to the reality that Canada and Japan were the only two remaining G8 countries who did not offer a national system of grants, students were successful in their bid to pressure the Canadian Government to create Canada’s first National system of Grants. In 2009, as a result of the work of students; Students will receive a total of million dollars in new monies from the federal government. This will increase to 430 million dollars per year in the next few years.

Free Adult Basic Education for Students (2007)
In 2002, as part of a series of government cuts focused on students, the BC government deregulated tuition fees for adult basic education. These courses were previously offered without charged. The Government argued that it was the job of College and University-College administrations to set fees for courses not the BC Government. As a result of the decision, which was viewed by many as a petty and unnecessary cut that reduced citizen’s ability to get a basic Grade 12 education, fees for ABE skyrocketed. In some cases students were paying as much to attend a math 10 courses as someone who was taking an advanced University level math course. Students across the province worked together to get petitions signed, raise public awareness about the policy shift and galvanize support from our members and the public. In 2006, despite claiming originally that it was not their responsibility, the BC Government reversed its decision and made ABE free for all students. In his announcement of the decision, Minister of Advanced Education Murray Coell thanked the Canadian Federation of Students for leadership on this issue acknowledging the effectiveness of our campaign for tuition fee free adult basic education.

The reintroduction of tuition fee regulation in British Columbia (2005)
In 2002, as part of a series of cuts focused on British Columbia Students, the BC Government announced that it was deregulating tuition fees in British Columbia. In a bold announcement the then minister of advanced education Shirley Bond was recorded in noting that her government would never regulate tuition fees.  Over the following three years tuition fees doubled and in some cases tripled for most university and college programs in the province. After the initial shock and disbelief students across the province worked together to launch an aggressive campaign called “Bring the Fees Back to Earth”. The campaign used a caricature of Premier Gordon Campbell sitting on a tuition fees rocket. Elected students from the Canadian Federation of Students – BC traveled around the province collecting petition signature and talking to members at their campuses. The campaign ultimately collected 42,000 signatures and earned extensive media coverage in provincial and local media.  To bring public and government attention to the wide spread public support for affordable education students from across the province traveled to the BC Legislature and submitted the signed petition to the BC Government with all 42,000 signatures. Shortly before the following  election the BC Government reversed their earlier claims that “they would never regulate tuition” and created policy regulating tuition fees at the rate of inflation. Annually, BC students collectively save millions of dollars from significantly reduced tuition fee increases and individually the savings are close to $3000 per year per student.

Halting planned tuition fee increase at VIU formerly Malaspina University-College (2005)
In 2004 prior to the re-regulation of tuition fees in BC the then Malaspina University-College Board of Governors passed a resolution authorizing the increase of tuition fees by 13.5%. Student representatives who sat on the board worked with Malaspina Student’ Union to show unequivocally that the institution only required an 11% increase to meet all of the institutions budgetary goals. As a result, the board passed a resolution authorizing a 13.5% increase with the understanding that despite the resolution tuition would only be increased by 11.5 %.

The following year the government regulated tuition fees in the province. In an attempt to circumvent the new policy the University attempted to increase fees to the amount authorized in the previous year and added an additional inflationary increase. Elected students from the then Malaspina Students’ Union (Vancouver Island University Students Union) drafted a letter to the Ministry of Advanced Education highlighting this issue. Shortly thereafter the University changed its plan to increase tuition by about 5 % a 2% increase. This increase would have been applied every year since 2005. As a result, every year members personally saves up to $120 per year in tuition that they would have paid had the Students’ Union not acted.

BC Loans Remission Program
In 2002 as part of their cuts directed at students and young people the BC Government began eliminating a series of grants designed to help lower income students in their efforts to get a education. The grants were attached to students loans and served as a tool to offer a modest reduction in the overall debt held by students when they graduated. In between 2002 and 2004 British Columbia went from having one of the most well developed provincial grants programs in the Country to having no provincial grants to reduce the graduation debt of poor students.

This issue was raised repeatedly in meetings with government and ministry of advanced education reps and government reps in general. In 2005 after repeated inquiries and the inclusion of this issue in our Bring the Fees Back to Earth Tour Ministry of Advanced Education officials contacted the BC Office of the Canadian Federation of Students to advise them that the Ministry was creating a Loans remission program to address the concerns of students. The loans remission program serves as a replacement to the grants program and while student were better served by the previous grants program the loans remission program does reduce some of the provincial student loan debt of students.

Elimination of Gym User Fee at VIU (Malaspina University-College)
Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina University-College), on top of tuition, charges students an activity fee to cover the costs associated with sports teams and additional recreational facilities and activities. The fee was originally set as a percentage of tuition. In 2002 when the BC Government deregulated tuition fees as part of a series of government cuts directed students the University-College increased tuition by about 50 % in the first year of the new policy. As a result of this massive increase in fees that was made necessary by under funding from the BC Government the Universities activity, which was a percentage of tuition, increased by a 50 percent as well. In addition to protesting the increase of tuition the Students’ Union met with University College administrators to address the Activity fee increase. During the meeting the Students Union was successful in winning two concessions from the institution. First, the institution changed the structure of the activity fee so it was no longer a percentage of tuition insuring that the fee did not increase in subsequent years and the institution agreed to provide significantly expanded services including free access to the Gym and enhanced and subsidized recreational activities for Students’ Union Members.

Prevented the Implementation of Income Contingent Loan Repayment Program (2000)
In 2000 Students from across the country held a national day of action titled “Access 2000” the day of action focused on the near universal opposition of students to the Canadian Governments Plan to create an Incomcontingent Loan Repayment Program which was initially designed by extreme right-wing economist Milton Friedman. The “Access 2000” Day of Action is still the largest national student protest in Canadian History and lead to an immediate and well documented reversal to plans to create a system of income contingent Loans. In every country where Income Contingent Loans have been implemented tuition fees have skyrocketed and student debt often exceeds $125 000 upon graduation.

Other Successes

International Students Off Campus Work Permits
Successfully lobbied for changes to policies to allow International Students’ to work of campus.

Elimination of GST from tuition fees
Successfully lobbied the Federal Government to reverse a decision to apply GST to Tuition fees