Post-secondary students are unable to juggle the expectations of their studies,
part-time jobs and social lives; there are too many demands on their time.
A post-secondary education is an expensive thing, the cost of which rises dependant on the length of the program; the longer a student works to get a high-paying career the farther in debt the student goes. The solution a part-time job.
It’s a Tuesday night and Nichole Bunn, a first year accounting student at Thompson Rivers University, rings customer’s items through her Shoppers Drug Mart till. She yawns, stares blankly at the clock, and waits for another customer to enter the vacant store.
Bunn, like many University students, is forced to spend her spare time working to pay her way through school. She works an average of 15 hours a week, yet there are students out there that work two or three part-time jobs on top of school, others hold full-time employment.
“I work because I like to be able to pay my rent, buy food, and save up for good stuff,” said Bunn, “Mainly rent”
“Sometimes it is overwhelming to go to school and have a job…you have to do homework but don’t have time,” said Bunn, “basically the first couple months I didn’t have time to sit and focus on it…I was working all weekend.”
Bunn is not alone, students have bills, and the money to pay for them has to come from somewhere.
“I work so I have spending money…so I don’t feel like I’m going in debt,” said Kevynn Ma, a third year business student at Thompson Rivers University
“I just quit my job,” said Ma, “I was working 16 hours a week…I didn’t have enough time to do my school work and my grades were suffering.”
“I had to think about what was more important to me,” said Ma, “my part time job, or my future career.”
The education students are receiving is not as enriching as it should be, students just don’t have the time to concentrate on their studies if they wish to pay their rent, a solution would be more government funding towards post-secondary education.
In France for example post-secondary education is paid for entirely, an education is something that should be accessible to all.
“I think it would be a waste of money to fund all of it,” said Ma, “If you do well your first year they should fund the rest of it”
“I think they should at least pay for books,” said Bunn, “it’s really expensive.”
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's study on student debt, released Nov. 1 2006, reports that among undergraduates who graduated with debt in 2006, the most indebted hail from Atlantic Canada, where students owe an average of $29,747. British Columbia has leapt into second spot after seeing the fastest three-year increase in the average student debt in the country, from $19,917 in 2003 to $26,675.
Among graduates who borrowed in Quebec, where tuition fees are the lowest and the grants program the most generous, the average debt is $12,992, by far the lowest in the country; the average debt in Ontario is $22,589, and $22,787 in the Prairie provinces, just below the national average of $24,047.
Since then the foundation says national student debt levels have risen with recent changes to the federal and provincial student loans program. As a result many students entering the work force after graduation are burdened with the knowledge that their first years paycheques will go towards paying off their debt, for many this could take decades.
A separate study by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, released in the same year, warns of the possible dangers of student indebtedness. It found that debt affects persistence, meaning students who borrow more are more likely to drop out.
According to the study 57 per cent of students reported borrowing some funds to use towards their college education, 29 per cent had borrowed more than $15,000.