As of Friday, Angela White, president of the Students' Association of Olds College, did not know for sure how much tuition could rise at that facility in the wake of the Oct. 24 provincial budget.
The provincial government announced it is dropping the five-year freeze on tuition, starting in 2020-21. Overall tuition increases will be capped at seven per cent per year for three years, for a total increase of no more than 21 per cent by 2022-23. No program within a school will be allowed to increase its tuition more than 10 per cent per year.
White, a student in the college's land and water resources program, said overall, she's not worried.
"Well, of course, from a student perspective, nobody wants to hear that tuition could — and most likely will — be increasing. And I think that any increase will be hard for students," she told the Albertan.
"But I think for us at Olds College, I really do think that even though it's going to be hard, the value of the programs that we get here and the value of the instruction that we get from the teachers, they're exceptional, and it's totally worth the price.
"Realistically, we're hopeful that we won't see a huge increase at this point. But at the same point, if we do, again, we're not too worried, because we know that what we're getting here is far better than what we could expect somewhere else," she added.
