Fees - Tuition Fee Policy [April 30, 1998]

University of Toronto Governing Council

Tuition Fee Policy

April 30, 1998

To request an official copy of this policy, contact:

The Office of the Governing Council
Room 106, Simcoe Hall 27 King’s College Circle University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1A1

Phone: 416-978-6576
Fax: 416-978-8182
E-mail: governing.council@utoronto.ca
Website: http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/

Tuition Fee Policy

The University of Toronto's tuition fee policy should reflect its mission as an internationally significant, public research university with undergraduate, graduate and professional programs of excellent quality. Such a goal assumes an appropriate level of funding which, for a public university, means principal support from the Provincial and Federal Governments, and from endowment funds as well as tuition fees. It also assumes the existence of programs of student aid to maintain the accessibility of the University to students of varying financial means. The effect of this policy should be neutral with regard to enrolment levels, which will be determined from time to time through the University's planning processes. Our tuition fee policy has five elements:

1. Advocacy.

In making the case for public policies strongly supportive of an accessible public system of university education, the University will continue to advocate ongoing and substantial public investment in the university sector.

2. Fee Revenue.

The University of Toronto will continue to be a public university, for which ongoing and substantial support from government will always be essential. The basic principle of the tuition policy is that public funding should be supplemented as can be demonstrated to be necessary to offer students an educational experience of a quality that ranks with that of the finest public research universities in the world.

3. Fee Differentiation.

The University should continue to move toward a more differentiated structure of fees across programs. In setting fees for each particular program, the following factors will be taken into account:

  • fees should take into account the plans and aspirations of each academic division, and the level of resources necessary to achieve high program quality.
  • program costs should be taken into account in setting fees.
  • fees should be set at a level that is competitive with programs of similar quality in institutions with which we compete or expect to compete for students.
  • fee levels should be relatively higher in programs for which the future income prospects of graduates are relatively higher.
  • fee levels should reflect a justifiable balance across public and private sources of revenue per student.
  • fee policy should allow for intentional, disproportionate public subsidies and intra-university cross- subsidies, where a case for cross-subsidization can be made.

In bringing forward the tuition fee schedule each time, the administration shall provide an explanation taking account of the above factors.

4. Fee Level Commitment.

The tuition fee schedule will include a commitment to be made to each student upon entry as to the level of fees to be charged over the normal course of the full-time program of study.

5. Monitoring.

In presenting the annual Report on Enrolment, the Vice-President and Provost shall include commentary regarding the effects, if any, of changes in tuition fees upon changes in enrolment.

March 25, 1998