Students angry at tuition hikes, quality of remote learning

A winter of discontent is brewing among postsecondary students in Canada as patience with online classes wanes and the prospect of rising tuition fees raises questions about value for money, writes Joe Friesen for The Globe and Mail.

The anger spilled over at a meeting of the University of Alberta’s academic governing body last month as student complaints about remote learning went on for more than two hours and angered some academic staff. Faculty were called “pathetic” and were blamed for students’ struggles with online learning, according to their union president, who described a sustained attack on the skills and professionalism of staff that he said was out of order.

The growing student frustration in Alberta represents the leading edge of pressures affecting higher education across the country. The Alberta government of Premier Jason Kenney has cut hundreds of millions in funding for postsecondary education as it wrestles with a large deficit. Hundreds of jobs have already been lost and further cuts loom. Schools here and elsewhere face a financial squeeze.
Full report on The Globe and Mail site