Yukon College eliminates application fee and raises credit course tuition fee

WHITEHORSE – The Yukon College Board of Governors has approved a 1.9% tuition fee increase to take effect for all credit courses beginning in September 2014.

The price of a course credit will go from $110 to $112. A full year of credit courses will increase by a maximum of $60 (for students taking 5 courses per semester).  Culinary Arts, Renewable Resource Management and Practical Nurse programs as well as Academic and Skill Development programs will see no tuition fee increase.

"We strive to ensure that the price of education at Yukon College does not exceed the lowest one third of comparable colleges in Western Canada, and this continues to be the case,” said Jennifer Moorlag, Registrar. “At the same time however, the fixed-costs of providing post-secondary education continue to rise."

The College Senior Executive has also approved the elimination of the $50 application fee for students applying to any Yukon College course or program, to take effect immediately.

"The application fee can be a barrier to accessing education for some students. Whereas many students are eligible to receive financial assistance with course fees and textbooks, application fees come directly out of their pockets," said Moorlag. "As part of our fee discussion this year we took a hard look at ways we could reduce this particular barrier for our students and decided that we should eliminate it entirely."

Yukon College revenue for 2012/13 totalled $42 million, of which tuition and registration fees accounted for only three per cent or $1.15 million. Yukon government base funding and third party contracts cover the majority of the College budget at 52 and 37 per cent respectively.

Moorlag also pointed to a range of improvements to the student experience at Yukon College over the past year, many of which are in response to specific student feedback. These include:

• the Student Engagement Coordinator position increasing from part-time to full-time
• expanded hiring of students including 6 welcome centre positions and a student recreation assistant
• the transit initiative which allows full-time students to use their college ID as a bus pass
• new information kiosk in the A wing to assist students
• new furniture in student areas and mobile device plug-ins
• science lab upgrades

Additional Info: 2013/14 and 2014/15 fee comparison

        Program                                    2013/14                  2014/15
Credit courses - Cost per credit       $   110.00              $   112.00 
College Prep - Cost per credit          $     73.00              $     73.00
Skills for Employment (Full time)       $   513.00              $   513.00
Skills for Employment (Part time)      $   366.00              $   366.00
Vocational Programs                       $1,650.00/ term      $1,680.00/ term
Pre-employment Programs               $2,200.00              $ 2,200.00