Queen's University Faculty Association
Policy on Accessibility
Approved at the April 24, 2001 

Given that,

1.     Undergraduates in Ontario now carry, on average, a $20,000 debt at graduation while graduates carry debts of $50,000 and up (in the professional programme these figures are much higher);

2.     Accessibility studies reveal declines of up to 9% throughout Ontario between 1991-1998 in enrolment of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and it has been demonstrated that nothing even close to an adequate study of the full implications of rising tuition costs in Canada has been made;

3.     Tuition increases have been used to meet shortfalls in public funding so that fees as a share of Canadian university operating revenues have increased from 11.6% in 1981 to 26.7% in 1999 and at Queens the increase is from 15% (1981) to 28.2% (1999);

4.    In a referendum of Queen's Arts and Science Students (Fall, 2000), 91% students in a record turnout opposed tuition deregulation;

5.    QUFA has endorsed the Queen's Senate document "Accessible Education for Citizens and Leaders in a Global Society of the 21st Century," (March 30, 2000);

6.     Canada endorses the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads in part: "Everyone has the right to education... [and] higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit."

7.    To rapidly move Queen's with its (CAN) $350 million endowment towards an American model of a private university with an endowment of (US) $8 billion is unfeasible,

It is moved that QUFA supports Queen's status as a publicly-funded university that shall be accessible to all students motivated and talented enough to enroll in any of the University's programmes,

That QUFA opposes additional deregulation of tuition that would lead to increased economic burdens placed on students, and to a further decline in accessibility in terms of both entry and retention of students,

That accessibility be defined in terms of affordability, without unmanageable debt for students independent of socioeconomic background, and

That any studies of accessibility must include factors such as those linked to class, race and gender that prevent potential students from even considering Queen’s.