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	Campaigns Membership Gets Results: Free Adult Basic Education! Reduce Tuition Fees $10 Minimum Wage Reduce Student Debt We Ride: Student Action for Public Transit Government Relations Campaign Tools Awareness Campaigns • No Means No • Where's the Justice?   Reduce Student Debt In Canada, more than half of all post-secondary students require some financial assistance. Three-quarters of those receiving student loans believe they would be unable to participate in higher education without this assistance. In British Columbia, the average student debt upon graduation has increased dramatically from the lowest in Canada at $18,500 (2001) to today’s record high of $27,000, the second-highest in the country. Rising tuition fees coupled with the absence of a need-based grants program has proven to be disastrous for those on student financial assistance. While the number of available college and university seats has risen over the past four years, student loan applications have fallen by close to 40%, a clear indication of the socio-economic impact of rising tuition fees. The funding for the BC Loan Reduction program, funded by the Millennium Scholarship Foundation and awarded to only the highest-need students, will be discontinued in spring 2008, increasing students’ debt by thousands of dollars per person annually. A national system of needs-based grants would reduce daunting levels of student debt and improve access to universities and colleges.
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