Freund Humanus

Here at the University of Toronto you’d hardly know there is a fees war raging in this country. For 10 weeks now, students in Montreal have been on the streets, protesting the Provincial government’s decision to increase student fees by an effective 75%, implemented over the next 5 years. The semester is in chaos. More than 165,000 students are boycotting classes. There have been street battles in Montreal. And students eager to get to exams are taking legal action.

It’s interesting to observe the responses to this in the media and online. Generally, there is not too much sympathy with the students. Reasons tend to be: the students enjoy some of the lowest fees in North America; they are privleged anyway; they are obstructing the hardworking students who want to write exams and get on with their degrees; the state already spends a lot of money subsidizing higher education; university professors in Canada earn such high wages that universities need to charge high fees to pay them.

These are all true, at least to a certain extent, but they miss the point. The continual failure of the state to support higher education is part of the general erosion of the middle class throughout the developed world. This is why you should care about and support the Quebec fees fight, unless of course, you are a member of the 1% and happy to see higher education move gradually into the domain of the wealthy. For the resot of us, it’s self-defeating to want anything but free education for all.

Having taught in universities in Apartheid South Africa, I don’t want to see higher education reserved for the wealthy. I remember how frustrating it was knowing that my students were warming the chairs of the lecture halls just because they were white. I knew that the townships were full of kids who would do much better if only they were given equal opportunity to acquire a higher education. This is where we are going in the neo-liberal vision of education. Access to higher education will be reserved for the privileged, regardless of talent.

Think about it. It is in the interest of the state to ensure that all members of society develop their skills as far as their potential will permit. This is why taxpayers should be happy to ensure the next generation can study at university free of charge. I’m on the students’ side. Let’s keep fighting fees until education is free for all.