http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/reopening-the-quebec-tuition-debate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reopening-the-quebec-tuition-debate University Affairs' News Blog - Looking at trends and happenings of note in Canada's university sector Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:39:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/reopening-the-quebec-tuition-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-3467 Leo Charbonneau Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:10:16 +0000 http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/?p=1034#comment-3467 I think Bruno Charbonneau makes a very valid point. There is clearly an important social value to higher education. But there is a private benefit of higher education to the individual as well. Are these benefits roughly of equal value, a fifty-fifty proposition? I don’t know, but undergraduate students in Quebec pay only about $1 out of every $5 of the cost of university. I think Bruno Charbonneau makes a very valid point. There is clearly an important social value to higher education. But there is a private benefit of higher education to the individual as well. Are these benefits roughly of equal value, a fifty-fifty proposition? I don’t know, but undergraduate students in Quebec pay only about $1 out of every $5 of the cost of university.

]]> http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/reopening-the-quebec-tuition-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-3453 Bruno Charbonneau Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:45:26 +0000 http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/?p=1034#comment-3453 The problem with this "debate" is that there isn't much debate in the first place. The "debate" is framed in simplistic fiscal and thus technical terms. The problem is unsophisticatedly identified as one of funding, thus implicitly suggesting a program of action, i.e. raising tuition fees. No one seems willing to engage in the larger and the implicit underlying debate about the place of higher education in our society, about what purposes higher education serves or should serve, about who and what benefits from such education, etc. If the assumptions are that it is a fiscal problem and that students are "clients" who "buy" diplomas, the solution suggests itself before the debate has begun. This seems largely to be what students association are trying to do: to reorient the debate toward the social value and place of higher education in Quebec society. So far, not many people seem to be listening. The problem with this “debate” is that there isn’t much debate in the first place. The “debate” is framed in simplistic fiscal and thus technical terms. The problem is unsophisticatedly identified as one of funding, thus implicitly suggesting a program of action, i.e. raising tuition fees. No one seems willing to engage in the larger and the implicit underlying debate about the place of higher education in our society, about what purposes higher education serves or should serve, about who and what benefits from such education, etc. If the assumptions are that it is a fiscal problem and that students are “clients” who “buy” diplomas, the solution suggests itself before the debate has begun. This seems largely to be what students association are trying to do: to reorient the debate toward the social value and place of higher education in Quebec society. So far, not many people seem to be listening.

]]>