UoT - Flat Tuition Fee

schmoey

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/614803

The University of Toronto's largest faculty has approved a controversial new flat fee that would charge students for five courses even if they take as few as three – but not until September 2011.

If you take 6 courses.. it'll be like buy 5 get 1 free haha.

DaNoobie

they better be ready to handle the demand then

vonnie

schmoey;52889 said:

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/614803


If you take 6 courses.. it'll be like buy 5 get 1 free haha.

So even if you take 1 course you get charged for 5?
That'll spark some riots lol.

Student0667

I am really interested in hearing UoT's justification for this new policy.

shadesofgrey

I thought a lot of schools already did this...

I went to Ryerson last year, and they charged us the same way. If you couldn't handle 5/6 courses and decided to drop one, it was your loss.

Student0667

shadesofgrey;52895 said:

I thought a lot of schools already did this...

I guess there is something about SFU that we can be proud of. Fortunately, we are charged by the credit. If you take only three credits, you pay only three credits worth of tuition + other stuff. If you take nine credits worth of classes, you pay nine credits worth of tuition + other stuff.

What the UoT is doing is nothing more than price gauging and I hope they will go out of business for this. Also, this kind of makes you wonder why so many high school graduates from the East are flocking to the West for their post-secondary education.

illicit

paying for what you use is what should be used, like our credit system which student0667 clarified.

if you use a flat rate like U of T, that's like paying a flatrate for gas annually, and for the rest of the year all you have to do is just hit up a gas station and pump.

that's just plain stupid, like visible panty lines.

DaNoobie

illicit;52897 said:

paying for what you use is what should be used, like our credit system which student0667 clarified.

if you use a flat rate like U of T, that's like paying a flatrate for gas annually, and for the rest of the year all you have to do is just hit up a gas station and pump.

that's just plain stupid, like visible panty lines.

^Thats such a stupid comparison. Not only is it not accurate, its not even relevant. Gas companies would never ever do that. What you alluded to is more like an all you can eat buffet except instead of food you have to eat on the spot, they give you canned goods to take home with you with no limitations on the number of trips you can go back.


One motivation behind their decision could be to prevent dorms from being overcrowded and such. If you take 3 classes a semester and take an extra year and a half to do your degree, theres going to be a higher number of students enrolled. If you force people (through $$ incentive) to take 5 classes or more, people finish their degrees faster and don't stay on campus as long.
What I'm worried about is, how much enrollment can they really handle. ie. course clashes and etc. Especially in the end of the degree where courses you need/want arent offered as much, people might get seriously screwed over without having a choice.

siuying

DaNoobie;52913 said:

What I'm worried about is, how much enrollment can they really handle. ie. course clashes and etc. Especially in the end of the degree where courses you need/want arent offered as much, people might get seriously screwed over without having a choice.

aren't students of SFU particularly those going into 3rd and 4th yr currently facing this as a result of the budget cut?

but you don't have to worry abt that since you've completed your degree.. =P

he makes a good point though.. you should just pay for what you use.. i honestly don't see a reasonable justification for charging a flat rate besides raking in more $$ for the uni.. whatever happened to putting student needs as a top priority in a place of education? =(

vonnie

YEAH I don't want more people enrolling if upper level courses are hard enough to get in as it is... If this were to happen to SFU it wouldn't really matter to me cuz I always take 5 anways lol.

DaNoobie

Unfortunately, as far as I know, most schools lose money and money makes the world go round and round!
I skimmed the article earlier. Basically its pretty much what I was driving at. They don't want massive numbers of students because student services and registrars and etc. go by head count. I mean, I'm not justifying that what they did is right, or saying that this is the best way to go about it (ie. lower the deans/board members salary) but if it was up to you, would you lower your own salary or make everyone else pay more money?

I guess they're just changing the rules of the game. Instead of going to a restaurant and pay for what you eat, they're changing the U of T restaurant to an all you can eat. But really, they've removed standardized testing now right? So I mean, anyone can get into some uni of some sort if you're not brain dead anyways, so might as well force people to take 5 and then get RTWed

And siuying, I was pretty lucky for the most part. But I didnt exactly absolutely have to take a certain elective because I was so so so so interested in that topic or w/e either. I did all my core ones in my first two semesters of 3rd year and kinda just coasted through the electives

shadesofgrey

DaNoobie;52913 said:

What I'm worried about is, how much enrollment can they really handle. ie. course clashes and etc. Especially in the end of the degree where courses you need/want arent offered as much, people might get seriously screwed over without having a choice.

I don't know if UofT does it the same way, but what Ryerson did in terms of courses/classes offered was similar to what we did back in high school. We selected the courses we intended to take in next semester before class offerings were created/finalized. That way, people got the courses they needed, and if their electives didn't fit in, they had to pick something else. You didn't always get the best time slots for classes, but you could always swap around after your schedule was created, given that there is space available in the class you want. It was generally more hassle-free if you didn't care so much when your classes were, and were more concerned about getting the classes you needed.