A wise teacher once told me any career can be fabulous if you like the work – and miserable if you don’t.
As students, your most important challenge is to get to know yourself so you can choose the post-secondary education that will lead to a rewarding and satisfying life. As Minister of Advanced Education, my challenge is to make sure you have access to that post-secondary education.
The B.C. government believes higher education should be available to every single student who wants it. That’s why we are adding 25,000 new seats to our post-secondary system by 2010, which means more spaces at every university, college, university college and institute in the province.
Part of the reason we’ve embarked on the largest post-secondary expansion in 40 years is we want every high school student who achieves a B or better to be able to go to university if that’s the path they’ve chosen. The good news is we’re already seeing progress in that direction, just one year into our six-year expansion.
It's working
Early this year, Simon Fraser University announced it is giving conditional acceptances to students with 80 per cent averages, and staff say applications are on the rise as a result.
The University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia Okanagan have invited students with 75 per cent averages to apply for entrance this September.
UBC Okanagan, in Kelowna, is one of the two new universities that we are creating in our province this year, along with Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. We are also working to establish British Columbia as the new global home for the World Trade University, a United Nations global partnership.
Meanwhile, we’re adding nearly 12,000 of our 25,000 new student spaces to our network of colleges, university colleges and institutes to make sure students can choose from a wide range of developmental, vocational, career technical, academic and applied degree programs closer to home.
We know that access to post-secondary education is affected most dramatically by the availability of student spaces. But cost is another factor, which includes the rising cost of living, as well as the cost of tuition.
Tuition increases limited
Our government removed a six-year tuition freeze to allow institutions to catch up with the rest of Canada. Now that they have caught up, we will be limiting any future increases to the rate of inflation, effective in September.
Because we do not want cost to be a barrier to students, British Columbia has a comprehensive, flexible student financial aid system – so that anyone can invest in their education if they choose. Over the next three years, we will be providing $450 million to students through that system,including loan reductions for students most in need, grants for students with disabilities, debt relief programs, and loan forgiveness programs.
Student aid will be further enhanced with an income exemption that will allow you to earn more than you could previously, without reducing your eligibility for student loans and grants. And we’re reducing the amount parents are expected to contribute before students become eligible for assistance.
In B.C., one out of every two students takes advantage of our student loan system to further their education. But there’s another path to obtaining post-secondary qualifications that allows you to earn while you learn – and that is to pursue a trade.
Earn while you learn
I know top students who have decided to become welders, or auto mechanics, or boilermakers, or chefs – because they loved working in those trades. Some go on to build their own businesses, small and large. And others may take advantage of our new, more flexible approach to industry training to build on their qualifications to obtain new ones and pursue other opportunities – management, for example.
There’s another option for those of you who must fit in your education around your day (or night) jobs, or family obligations, and that’s online learning. Just this week we launched the next phase of BCcampus, a collaborative system of online learning that will increase access for students everywhere in our province. You can log on at www.bccampus.ca to see what it’s all about.
Our government’s vision for post-secondary education is built around choice. We want students in B.C. to have the type of education they need to fulfill their dreams. That means a high-quality post-secondary system that is both strong and sustainable. We believe we are achieving that vision, and that you, our students, will reap the benefits. |
|
