International students and Canadian students who come from outside of Ontario will see tuition fee hikes at Laurentian University next fall.
The university’s board of governors approved the tuition fee increases at their April 28 meeting. You can read the full report on the rationale behind the hikes starting at page 53 of the board package.
Tuition fees for Laurentian international students will be increased by five per cent (with some exceptions for graduate programs).
They will also be increased by one per cent for non-Ontario resident domestic students in the next school year (meaning they’ll now be paying seven-per-cent more than Ontario resident domestic students at LU).
To give some comparison, Ontario resident domestic arts and science students paid $6,000 in tuition fees in 2022-2023, and will continue to do so in the coming school year.
Out-of-province domestic students paid $6,366 in tuition in 2022-2023. That number will increase to $6,430 in 2023-2024.
Again for arts and science students, Laurentian international tuition was $25,960 in 2022-2023, and increases to $27,258 in 2023-2024.
The Ministry of Colleges and Universities issued its tuition fee framework for the 2023-2024 academic year for domestic students in Ontario on March 2, said a written report presented to Laurentian’s board by LU interim vice-president, finance Michel Piché.
“The framework continues the tuition fee freeze for domestic students at 2022-23 levels and provides institutions the flexibility to increase tuition fees for domestic out-of-province students up to five per cent,” said the report.
However, new this year, the province is allowing institutions to apply to increase Ontario resident domestic tuition fees for programs with “lower than sector average” for a maximum of three programs.
The increases would be for first-year incoming students and would be capped at 7.5 per cent per year.
Laurentian will be applying for a multi-year tuition increase being implemented in the 2024-2025 school year for its computer science, engineering and master’s of architecture programs.
The report said international tuition fees are not part of the tuition fee framework “and are subject to market factors. In determining international fees, the University benchmarks fees from the Ontario university sector.”
In terms of undergraduate international tuition fees, Laurentian “is the same or slightly higher than the average or median” when looking at comparator universities, “except for engineering, where Laurentian is below the comparator group average or median.”
“The University did not increase international fees in 2022-23,” said the report. “As part of its enrolment management plan, in 2023 Laurentian is developing an Internationalisation Strategy, which will include a deeper look at both the integration of scholarships and tuition fees including attracting international students at the undergraduate level in francophone programs. In the meantime, to better align with sector and comparator tuition fees, Laurentian is recommending a five per cent increase for international undergraduate tuition fees.”
According to information provided as part of LU’s 2023-2024 budget projections, Laurentian’s international student numbers are set to increase in the next school year from 555 this past school year to 784 in the coming school year.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
