Students vs Debt
Canadian university students struggle with many financial challenges, including rent, and relentless inflation. This economic crisis forces them to live their lives paycheck to paycheck, while trying to pay the rising costs accompanied by their education and daily living.
Stella Myre, a second-year business and finance student at the University of Guelph, highlights the enormous financial burden she faces. Myre emphasizes that incurring more debt not only unfocuses her studies, but also adds a huge amount of stress to her life.
Myre’s financial troubles include tuition, textbooks, rent, utilities, groceries, parking permits, gas and car insurance, telephone bills, clothing and entertainment and her own spending costs.
This financial stress is not unique to Myre or many other students, it’s a recurring problem with university students, past and present.
The average cost of tuition for a bachelor’s degree in Canada is a whopping $7,056 CAD, while many students are forced to work minimum wage jobs, typically at $16.65 an hour each to make up for their tuition, these students must work 40 hours a week to just pay for a single semester.
The financial burden goes beyond tuition; students looking for on-campus housing face significant financial pressure, with campus residence costing between $3,000 and $7,000 CAD.
Another troubling challenge is the issue of rising food prices.
In recent years, food prices in Canada have risen sharply, reaching a 6.9 per cent increase in August 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
The increase pertains to fast food chains and grocery stores as well, with fast food chains like Wendy’s increasing by up to 35%, now that’s a lot for a Dave’s single with cheese.
A clear example of this trend in Canada is the increase in the price of a large cup of coffee at Tim Hortons, where a cup of coffee is no longer as easy as pulling out a loonie and a few quarters. A coffee at Tim Hortons was $1.92 Canadian in 2020 and spiked to about $3.50 three years later.
Justin Reguly, a college student majoring in business with a specialization in accounting at Lakehead University, attests to his friends who have to rely on the financial obligations of their education.
They are forced to work long hours, often to the detriment of their studies, which puts their well-being at risk, said Reguly. Reguly notes the impact of inflation on essential academic supplies such as laptops and textbooks, which are necessary to meet the in-class demands of university.
As prices have risen, student loans have become increasingly common, threatening students’ ability to save. While individual circumstances may vary, the fear of inflation causing chaos seems to be an issue that will affect all of us at some point in our lives.
