Paid in full update: who pays for university education in BC?

This report examines how post-secondary education is funded in [British Columbia] BC, and challenges the conventional wisdom that students are heavily subsidized by taxpayers. It updates the analysis contained in a 1998 [Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives] CCPA report of the same name written by former [University of British Columbia] UBC economist Robert Allen. The report calculates the financial contributions that students make toward their post-secondary degrees, taking into account two ways in which students pay: (1) at the front door through tuition fees; and (2) after graduation through higher income taxes over their working careers (university graduates generally have higher incomes and therefore pay more taxes than people with only a high school diploma). Students’ total payments for their degrees are then compared to the total cost of providing undergraduate education in BC. The analysis finds that, as a group, university graduates pay much more than the full costs of their education under the existing system of taxes and fees.

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