On December 22, 2014, the Government of Alberta announced that it had approved a request from the Faculty of Law and 24 Campus Alberta programs for "market modifier" tuition increases. The "market modifier" debate at the Faculty from August-December involved two town halls, an-LSA led survey of students that confirmed a strong majority of students supported the proposed increase (from $10,221 phased in to $15,995 by 2017-18) and identified student priorities for increased investment. Twenty percent of new funds will support scholarships and bursaries. Letters of support from the LSA, CBA Alberta, Alumni & Friends, and the managing partners of 12 Edmonton law firms, as well as engagement by the Dean with a much wider network to garner support from students, faculty, alumni, the bar and the judiciary were critical to the success of the proposal.
The editorial by the Dean in the Edmonton Journal, reprinted below, outlined the challenges the Faculty faced and how the proposal would help start to address them:
Opinion: Can't take tuition out of equation
How disappointing that the Journal's Sept. 18 editorial, "A tuition hike by any other name," painted such an incomplete picture. Delving deeper into the situation facing students at the University of Alberta faculty of law reveals a portrait of a profession in transformation, and a faculty challenged to compete and respond to those new realities with one arm tied behind its back. Maintaining access is critical, but access to what? While we have managed to preserve an excellent program here, law schools elsewhere in Canada are able to recruit and retain many of our best students by offering new, innovative programs via better access to funds. In the case of the U of A's law faculty, the numbers tell a different story. In real dollars, our operating budget is lower today than it was five years ago. Since 2009, we have lost 7.5 faculty positions that we can't afford to replace Our law library is closed during the summer. Courses have been cut. Our first-year property class this year has one section of 180 students, rather than the traditional three sections of 60. And, as one student letter in the U of A student newspaper the Gateway noted recently, our law students are now served by one admissions officer and one overworked career officer.
Meanwhile, the gap between tuition here, currently at $10,121, and at other Canadian law schools is extraordinary and widening. On average, students pay about 60 per cent more to attend the top 12 law schools in Canada considered our peers. Fees at top Canadian schools (whose graduates are competing with ours for jobs in Alberta and nationally) can be two or three times our rates. The University of Toronto is more than $31,000 a year, Osgoode Hall is $22,000 and even Thompson Rivers, a new school in Kamloops, charges $17,800. Those additional funds are helping these other schools offer the kind of innovative programming students want and expect as the legal profession changes. Our faculty members have become adept at doing more with less, but our current situation is not sustainable.
So when the government of Alberta recently invited proposals for market modifiers, we continued our ongoing four-year consultation with law students recently described in the Journal as "unprecedented" by the president of the Law Students Association. Together, we identified their key needs and priorities and arrived at a measured increase of approximately $2,000 per year, phased in over three years. If accepted, this will be reinvested in maintaining class sizes, offering additional scholarships and bursaries to protect access, expanding experiential learning opportunities and providing better career services support. While they're understandably reluctant, the Law Students Association described the proposal as fair and equitable.
The [Edmonton Journal] editorial, while acknowledging the need for more investment in education, asks whether it's fair to increase the burden on students, and suggests many young Albertans interested in business or law "won't bother considering a faculty with annual tuition that starts in the five digits."
At $10,121 per year, our tuition is already five digits, and there is no evidence this is deterring applicants-we have more than nine applications for every available space-or placing an unreasonable financial burden on graduates. On the contrary, data on debt, hiring and salaries all suggest our students could and should be permitted to make further investments in their own legal education.
Over the last three years, between 20 and 25 per cent of U of A's law students graduated with no student debt. Roughly 40 per cent had less than $20,000 in debt on graduation. Despite the financial challenges, we have managed, over the past five years, to increase scholarships and bursaries, which now exceed $1.1 million each year.
Virtually all of our graduates continue to secure employment, many with enviable starting salaries. But the market is getting more competitive, and we need to invest to be sure they can continue to do so.
The editorial suggests that rather than raising tuition, Alberta universities should shift the balance toward more public investment, arguing that this balance "is broken in other parts of Canada."
I agree public investment must be part of the equation. This province is the envy of Canada, having led the country in economic growth for 20 years. That boom has fed - and will continue to feed - demand for lawyers who are trained in-province and understand Alberta's business landscape. Supporting economic growth, and the needs of ordinary Albertans across the province and across income levels, means supporting our law schools.
Similarly, there is no doubt that the private sector, including alumni, needs to do more. I'm reaching out to them as well, making the case for the value proposition of their individual and corporate investment.
It seems fair to ask the public and private sector to give more. But it's unrealistic to take tuition out of the equation. A three-pronged approach - equitable tuition, government investment and stewardship of contributions from alumni, the legal profession and industry - is needed to ensure continued access to a quality legal education that doesn't merely compete with the best in Canada, but is the best.