University Students Tuition Saving Tips - vancouver, BC

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University Students Tuition Saving Tips - Vancouver BC - Canada.

Get an education in saving

With tuition fees rising, university students will have a tough time making ends meet, The Sun's Michael Kane reports

Michael Kane
Vancouver Sun

Gillian Humphreys said goodbye to her folks in West Vancouver on Friday and flew to Ontario to start life as an undergraduate student. With her parents taking care of travel, tuition, board and books, she's confident she can survive the next eight months on $50 a week of "fun money" from her savings.

Erin Stevens, who starts her second year in political science at the University of B.C. on Tuesday, spent the weekend working as usual. Stevens, 19, is paying for most of her post-secondary education by holding down two part-time jobs while she studies. She works Friday evenings and weekends during school and seven days a week during the summer.

"I really schedule everything -- you have to when you have hardly any time," she said. Her 90-minute bus and SeaBus commutes from North Vancouver to UBC are often used to catch up on reading or sleep. Humphreys, 18, has held down part-time jobs for the past three years to build her savings, and doesn't intend to seek additional work while studying social sciences at London's University of Western Ontario.

"I've given the money to my parents and arranged for them to forward $200 monthly," she said. "I think $50 a week will be okay." She says she has learned a little about saving money and budgeting from the mistakes of her brother, Adam, who is studying at the University of Victoria.

About 40 per cent of students toil at some type of part-time job to survive their college years, says Vancouver's Murray Baker, author of The Debt-Free Graduate, a guide to surviving college or university without going broke (published by HarperCollins at $14). Baker graduated debt-free from the University of Western Ontario in 1986, but concedes it's much tougher today with constantly increasing costs.

Tuition fees alone have more than doubled over the past decade. After a seven-year tuition freeze, British Columbia is posting Canada's largest average tuition-fee increase for undergrads this year at 25.2 per cent, Statistics Canada says. Graduate students in B.C. are hit even harder at 31.2 per cent on average. With average tuition of $3,165, B.C. undergrads still fare better than most in the rest of the country.

Elsewhere, tuition ranges from a low of $1,851 for home-grown students in Quebec ($4,171 for out-of-province students) and a high of $5,214 for undergrads in Nova Scotia. StatsCan notes that undergrads will also pay an average of $538 in additional compulsory fees, 14.2 per cent more than last year. The latest results of the annual Guide to University Costs in Canada show B.C. as the third least expensive provinces in which to attend university, jumping up two spots from last year.

The annual study, put out by USC Education Savings Plans, tracks tuition, books and room and board at 37 top Canadian universities. "This fall, it will cost B.C. students an average of $11,380 for their first year of studies including resident housing, a $3,330 increase over last year's B.C. average," said Brian Munholland, USC president. This year Stevens is paying $3,000 for tuition at UBC, up from $2,400 last year.

That extra $600 represents two seven-day weeks of seating diners at the Steamworks brew pub and restaurant in Gastown and tending to shoppers at Hangers in West Vancouver's Park Royal mall. "I understand why tuition is going up," she said. "I just wish the hikes were more gradual. But I really love UBC. When I pay my money, I feel I get my money's worth." Stevens keeps costs down by living at the family home in North Vancouver and packing lunches. Her parents pick up her monthly $63 transit pass and pay about $800 each year for her books. "My parents said they wanted me to pay my own tuition to teach me a life lesson in saving," Stevens said. "If I paid for it, they said I would obviously take my classes more seriously."

She suggests $50 a week is more than enough for entertainment and non-essential spending. Baker notes that many other costs have gone up, particularly textbooks. Accommodation costs are also up and computer equipment and technology have added an expense that wasn't there five or 10 years ago. This year the revised edition of Baker's irreverent Debt-Free Graduate is being used in workshops or distributed free to first-year students at 30 universities and colleges across Canada, including Simon Fraser University and UBC. Sponsorship by Edulinx Canada reduced the cost to educational institutions of bulk orders of the book.

Edulinx is a CIBC subsidiary that administers student loans for the federal government. Baker also administers a Web site -- www.debtfreegrad.com -- to help students and their parents pare expenses. Part of the site was developed in partnership with the federal government and includes interactive tools for planning and saving for college or university and making money last once you have it. For example, a cost calculator allows users to compare costs at any public college or university in Canada and to project future costs. It also allows users to estimate their resources and reconcile them with their costs. The site includes a free online personal finance magazine for students called The MoneyRunner.

Monthly issues cover topics such as scholarship and bursary tips, summer and part-time job strategies, saving and investing, travelling on a budget, everyday cost-cutting and consumer tips. Students can save about $180, for example, by opting out of a university's extended medical plan if they can show they are covered under a parent's plan. Students are automatically enrolled unless they opt out by a deadline, usually mid- to late September. At this time of year, one of the Web site's most important features is a budgeting calculator where students can map out their expenses for the year to ensure they aren't borrowing come spring.

Student expenses are going up and students are finding it more of a struggle each year, says Franko Zaurrini, manager of VanCity's Dunbar branch near UBC. "I strongly recommend they sit down with an adviser in their first year and go over their financial fitness," he said. "A lot of times, they get on campus, they'll apply for 15 credit cards, and they graduate three years later with a pile of debt and not knowing what to do." One of the first ways to cut costs is to avoid Interac fees by using your own financial institution's bank machines and cutting back on debit-card use for minor purchases. "I talked to one student who was paying $26 in service charges every month because he was using ATMs and everything else," Zaurrini said. "Students are very automated, very electronic.

They should choose a banking package that gives them automatic withdrawals and debit-card use." To keep borrowing to a minimum, Baker suggests avoiding credit cards and shunning the pens, CDs and other freebies that are used to entice students to the world of high-cost debt. He also suggests shopping around for student banking packages. Banks such as President's Choice Financial offer no-fee accounts and pay a relatively high interest rate without minimum balance requirements.

VanCity charges $3.50 monthly for a student account with no additional fees for the first 40 transactions. Electronic bank ING offers a no-fee and no-minimum savings account for students who want to park their money and earn daily interest until it is needed. Zaurrini suggests it is prudent to have one credit card for flexibility and to build a credit rating. A credit card may be necessary to book courses or buy books online.