By Jackson Gardner

At Thompson Rivers University, international students’ tuition is already four times higher than it is for domestic students. While a decrease in price might seem to be in order, quite the opposite has been proposed by the university. On October 7th, TRU World proposed a 20% increase to undergraduate fees and a 25% to graduate fees. The plan to increase these fees was proposed to take place over the course of three years. Currently, the average international student tuition is $18,355. When combined with the cost of residence and transportation, it paints an expensive picture for students from abroad looking to attend TRU.

In comparison to other universities, TRU also requires a significantly larger tuition deposit. While prominent BC universities like Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia only demand tuition deposits of up to $1000, TRU’s starting deposit for international students is a whopping $5000. That number is current and does not take into account the proposed increase, meaning it could become higher as well. “It definitely complicates things” said Archie Golding, a first year student from England who has felt the full force of these elevated tuition costs. “It’s not easy to find $5000 laying around, and the fact that you need that paid before beginning your studies adds a lot of stress”.

In addition to the significantly higher tuition costs and tuition deposits, TRU also has the strictest deadlines for these payments to be made in comparison to other major universities. Simon Fraser University has a fall balance owing deadline of September 20 and a winter balance owing deadline of January 17, and the University of Victoria has a fall balance owing deadline of September 30, and a Winter balance owing deadline of January 31. As for TRU, those deadlines come weeks earlier. The fall balance owing deadline for the $5000 tuition deposit is September 2nd and the winter balance owing deadline comes on December 30.

Since the proposal was made, TRU has received significant backlash. The TRU Student Union released a statement that was sent to all students, summarizing the proposal and the implications that come with it. They also created a report and recommendation for the proposal, which includes limiting tuition fee increases for international students at 2%, lowering the tuition deposit, and extending the deadlines for tuition payment. It has also been pointed out that TRU is not in a place of financial hardship that would cause them to suffer from not maximizing on these profits from international students. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. TRU has seen a financial gain of $71.6 million over the last four years. “It does feel like sometimes they take advantage of us. I talk to my Canadian friends and they talk about how much it costs them to go to school. When I look at my tuition costs its 10 or 15 thousand more than theirs and it’s a bit disheartening. And hearing that now they’re trying to bring it up even more makes me feel a bit hopeless” said Fael Benkhelouf, an international student who made the journey over from France to attend TRU. This is not a one off case as well, with many of the over 3500 international students voicing the same concern.

Their voices have begun to be heard, as TRU has since withdrawn its proposal and will be presenting a revised proposal at the next meeting on December 9th. Archie Golding had some words to say on the matter: “Obviously it’s nice that it hasn’t been done, but it still shows their intentions and it definitely worries me about what other cost increases they might propose in the future. I guess we’ll just wait and see” said Golding. Golding, along with many

international students at TRU will be holding their breath as they await for the next proposal to be presented. For now, all they can do is hope that the TRU Student Union’s plan gets through to the university’s decision makers and can provide a more fair and affordable future for these students that are already taking a risk by travelling from all over the world to attend TRU.