University students struggling through rising tuition, rent and low youth employment

The cost of living is being felt on campus as students in university grapple with increasing tuition and rent as well as low youth employment.

Aliyah Ehwaniyk, in her first year of business studies at the University of Calgary, says she will be paying nearly $20,000, which includes room and board, a meal plan and tuition.

Not included is money for social gatherings or her textbooks.

"It is really difficult to worry about. Like, I haven't really started processing it yet," she said.

Ehwaniyk says her parents are helping her pay for her first year but after that, she is on her own.

"I know it'll be a big commitment to have to pay for it," Ehwaniyk said.

Her friend Naomi Zinn, a first-year student in education who moved from Burlington, Ont., says her parents provided her with $10,000 and after that, she will have to pay for the rest of her schooling on her own.

"I took out student loans already," Zinn said.

"I just kind of have to get a job and then hope for the best."

According to Statistics Canada's latest data, youth unemployment (ages 15-24) sits at nearly 15 per cent.

Zinn was only able to work four to eight hours a week at the Boston Pizza in her hometown, struggling to find work elsewhere.

She will start looking for work in Calgary after her midterms.

Alberta's minimum wage is $15 an hour.

The average tuition in Alberta has risen from $5,713 for the 2018-19 school year to $7,734 for 2024-25.

In the same period, inflation has risen 20.57 per cent, according to the Bank of Canada.

"The typical job is going to be entry-level wages for youth and students. That makes sense -- most of those jobs in Alberta are going to be $15 to $18 an hour," said Kevin McNichol, CEO of Prospect Human Services.

"Substantially harder. I don't know how they're doing it, to be honest."

That's how McNichol describes what students enrolling in university now are up against versus those who attended 10 to 20 years ago.

For students like Ehwaniyk and Zinn, who plan on taking on student debt, paying it off will take longer.

"I think they're having to take on bigger debt because they're not having the work to offset or to supplement their spending requirements," McNichol said.

"They have to drag more loan money in to allow themselves to get through their time in school."

Looking ahead to 2025-26, the University of Calgary is considering increasing tuition for domestic students by two per cent for undergraduate programs.

Mount Royal University is likewise looking at an average two per cent hike across all programs for domestic students.

The Alberta government has capped post-secondary education tuition increases at two per cent starting in 2024-25.

Advice for students

Susan MacDonald is a career counsellor for university and high school students.

She points to more than just financial challenges.

"It seems more difficult than ever before in life," MacDonald said.

"Changes in technology, globalization, demographics and then we threw a pandemic on top of everything. So where do students even begin right now?"

Her advice for young people is to get pointed in the right direction "for all the right reasons."

"A lot of students are just really not too sure what they like, what they don't. It really becomes a lot more complicated than ever before," MacDonald said.

"A lot of students haven't even had any kind of a job and so they just lack the funding to get into post-secondary school."

MacDonald works with a lot of students she says made a panicked decision without collecting all the information they could about the program they were enrolling in.

"They struggle into the post-secondary environment, and they struggle getting into a career," she said.

She advises people to meet with a counsellor and individuals working in the fields they desire a career in.