Students’ unions at two Calgary universities are advocating for more post-secondary student funding and affordability measures for students in Alberta’s Budget 2025.

The Student Association at Mount Royal University (SAMRU), Graduate Students’ Association at the University of Calgary (GSA) and the University of Calgary Students’ Union (SU) published a joint pre-budget submission in early October highlighting various affordability and funding measures they want to see in next year’s provincial budget.

Among those recommendations is expanding the Campus Alberta Grant (CAG) to provide a 10 per cent increase in funding to every post-secondary institution across the province. According to the pre-budget submission, the grant was reduced by $300 million between Budget 2019 and Budget 2024 — a 26 per cent decrease after accounting for inflation.

Meanwhile, the cost of undergraduate tuition in Alberta has risen by 26.5 per cent since 2019. Undergraduates in Alberta are also paying the highest additional fees compared with undergraduate students in other provinces, according to the report.

All three students’ unions raised concerns about how the increases have been inversely proportional to the quality of education students feel they receive. According to a 2021 summer survey conducted by the SU, 59 per cent of respondents disagreed that their tuition matched the quality of their education. That number rose by three percentage points in 2023 (62 per cent), the report said.

The report added that post-secondary institutions can no longer afford to retain the staff needed for optimal program delivery. Mount Royal University was forced to lay off staff and abolish vacant positions in 2019 due to the lack of funding.

While the proposed increase is still “far below inflation,” the report said, it is fiscally practicable to alleviate the pressures caused by chronic underfunding.

“Alberta can call as much as it likes, but the innovators of tomorrow will not be picking up,” said Tala Abu Hayyaneh, president of the Representation Executive Council at SAMRU.

“A lot of our students are stressed about finances. And you know, we notice when universities aren’t being funded properly. We notice it in delayed maintenance, deferred maintenance, that’s what we call it in the institution.”

More funding for graduate student research

The GSA is also asking the province to institute a dedicated graduate student research funding stream, providing research grants or scholarships to graduate students across the province.

According to the pre-budget submission, postgraduate research and studies play an important part in research and development in Canada but are chronically underfunded. Canada also produces fewer postgraduates compared to the U.S. and the European Union – only 9.3 per cent of Canadians have a master’s degree or higher.

Hunter Yaworski, vice-president external for the GSA, also raised concerns about the province’s stance against Tri-Council research funding agencies – The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Bill 18, dubbed the Provincial Priorities Act, restricts post-secondary institutions from receiving federal research funding which critics say is an affront to academic freedom in the province.

“We absolutely are concerned about how this will impact graduate student enrollment in the province, broadly, and also the security that those graduate students will have if they do come to this province,” he told LiveWire Calgary.

“As of yet, there has not been sufficient guarantee or discussion around how this will impact individual student research projects and how that funding is allocated.”

Institute student housing measures: student unions

All three students’ unions are also asking the province to build more student housing, saying there is a lack of on-campus options. According to the pre-budget submission, there is one residence bed for every 12 students at the University students. At Mount Royal, that ratio is one bed for every 15 students.

Rents are also increasingly unaffordable for Alberta students. According to data from Zumper, the median rent in Calgary is around $1,958 a month, a six per cent decrease year-over-year and three per cent higher than the national average.

Graduate students also struggle to find affordable family-oriented housing, since they are often older and have families on their own.

Students are also often living in unsafe housing situations, the pre-budget submission said. A UTILE report published in 2021 found that 17 per cent of students have felt unsafe in their dwellings and 43 per cent have occupied housing in need of repairs.

All three students’ unions said they have heard stories of students sleeping on campus, in cars, or even outside because they couldn’t find safe, affordable housing.

“Student residences on campus are affordable to begin with, but then we have noticed an increase in demand because everywhere else it’s so expensive to find rent that students are now looking more towards residence,” Abu Hayyaneh said.

“This is the second year where MRU has had full capacity … Affordable housing and safe housing shouldn’t be a luxury.”

SAMRU, GSA and SU are asking the province to establish a $250 million provincial student housing fund and make post-secondary institutions exempt from accessing federal funding to build more student housing.

They are also asking the province to adopt Quebec’s rental adjustment model, which allows tenants to refuse rental increases they find unreasonable and the landlord can make a case for the increase before a provincial board (in this case, the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service). According to a GSA 2024 policy white paper, Quebec’s model individualizes rent increases because it is done on a building-by-building basis based on publicly known factors like building location, cost and property taxes. The “soft rent cap” model encourages flexible decision-making while respecting tenant rights by prioritizing rent and supply, the white paper argues.

“It’s supposed to be much more flexible and decentralized, and involves meaningful engagement and consultation exactly tenants with at arm’s length from the government as well, so the government isn’t coming in and determining what the rent increase is going to be. It’s the tenant and the landlord and the tribunal with their data and algorithm that determines that,” said Andrew Kemle, the GSA’s advocacy advisor.

“What We were hoping to do was ask the provincial government to kind of leverage the unique relationship that students have with our communities and use students as sort of a pilot test program to see if this tribunal model could actually lead to more sustainable rent levels in Alberta, because we don’t have the data to say, ‘Oh, we absolutely guaranteed this will work.’”

Reinstate the Summer Temporary Employment Program

The pre-budget submission called the so-called “Alberta Advantage” a myth for students who often must grapple with the youth employment rate, which has risen nationwide. Alberta’s youth unemployment rate is also higher than the national average since 2016, according to data from Statistics Canada.

The Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) was first introduced in 1972 and provided businesses up to 16 weeks of provincial funding to hire students between May and August. That program was axed between 2013 and 2016, then again in 2019. The Alberta government said in 2019 that the program was not an efficient use of taxpayer money, and the cancellation would save the province $32 million a year.

The loss of the STEP program not only impacted students’ finances but also the opportunity to acquire work experience related to their field of study, all three students’ unions said.

“There is a big focus in Alberta on work experiential learning. With that work-integrated learning piece, the government needs to do its part,” Yaworski said.

“Summer jobs shouldn’t just pay the bills. A lot of students think that we need to go find a survival job. You should be able to find meaningful employment. They should jump-start careers through those jobs that are meaningful to them, and that looks like internships, co-ops, whatever it is that is really meaningful to students in the studies that they’re in.”

The pre-budget submission also argued that the loss of the program impacted Alberta’s economy. According to a report by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, 56 per cent of non-profits and municipal governments were no longer able to provide the same level of programming when STEP was first eliminated in 2013.

All three students’ unions are urging the province to reinstate the program to the tune of $11.8 million after adjusting for inflation, which they say will create thousands of student jobs and support local businesses.

“We want students in Calgary to be able to work in Calgary, to contribute to the economy in Calgary, and be able to really show the Calgary talent that we have in universities, undergraduates and graduates,” Yaworski said.

Increase non-repayable student aid

Albertans are also graduating with more debt compared with the rest of the country, according to the pre-budget submission, which has repressive effects. Undergraduate students are mostly ineligible for grants and are forced to accept loans, which accrue interest.

Students who are eligible for provincial grants – graduate students and apprentices – have seen their funding slashed. Around $17.9 million went towards grants in the 2021-2022, the submission said, and only $18.2 million was allocated to grants in Budget 2024. Accounting for inflation, the students’ unions say this is around a 10 per cut to provincial grants.

Graduate students also have declining economic prospects and lower economic returns due to high levels of debt and lower wages, Yaworski said.

“If you do a master’s, that can be two to three, sometimes even four years of your life that you are not in the workforce, where you’re not building a career,” he said.

“We’re talking about individuals in their late 20s, early 30s, who should probably be making a lot of money who are instead almost making … I would frame it as a sacrifice. They are furthering their education, they’re getting involved in research, and they’re sacrificing some years of their lives that they would be making some incredible money in their careers to do something that’s going to be a great benefit to society.”

Student debt also has economic repercussions. According to a 2017 Ipsos survey, half of Canadian graduates are forced to delay major financial milestones because of student debt, like planning for retirement, buying a house, or having an emergency fund.

All three students’ unions are asking the province to expand eligibility for the Alberta Student Grant For Full-Time Students to undergraduates, as well as increase base funding for non-repayable student financial aid by 10 per cent and indexing increases to the consumer price index, enrolment growth and an additional two per cent for the next five years.

“We do our best to communicate to the Ministry of Advanced Education our needs and the pain points of our students, whether it’s through consultation, whether it’s through continuous communication with them … The pre-budget submission is just one of the ways that we have been communicating with them,” Abu Hayyaneh said.

“We’re hoping that we can continue to build that relationship and further, you know, grow it and keep that line of communication going, because at the end of the day, the ministry is here to serve students, and that is their job and commitment to us.”