In 2025 and 2026, MacEwan students are set to pay more for their tuition. Domestic students are facing a two per cent increase, while international tuition jumps by five per cent.

On average, the domestic tuition will add $100-200 to bachelor degree programs based on 30 credits per year. 

On December 19th, 2024, MacEwan’s Board of Governors approved their motion for the 2025/2026 tuition and non-mandatory fees. Sumiko Yip, the university secretary for the Office of University Governance, confirmed these increases in an email to the Griff. 

There will also be a two per cent hike to mandatory non-instructional fees which Yip says “reflects the cost of operating the programs,”  while student tech fees will be waived for winter 2024 through to 2026. The tech fee will be completely waived for students at MacEwan’s Ponoka campus.

Yip says  there was also a “reduction to the MacEwan University Health Centre fee for 2025/2026,” which Joe A. La Torre, one of the two student members on the board, says went from $12 to $10. 

The increases to tuition and fees are permitted by Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act, and within the yearly amount set by the province.

Looking at MacEwan’s Financial plan for 2022/2023 to 2024/2025, the university’s expected annual operating surplus increased from $7 million to $166 million. During the Board of Governors meeting on October 17th, 2024, board member Sandra Haskins reported on a “forecasted $12 million surplus, driven by increased FLEs (full-load equivalents) with discussions underway on the best ways to use the surplus.”. 

Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act also mandates two meetings year to year for tuition and fees consultation between student associations and their schools. La Torre says MacEwan has been collaborative and has four of these meetings with SAMU, with the process beginning in August. 

While SAMU does not have any veto power over MacEwan’s decisions for tuition and fees, La Torre says this was the first year SAMU was involved in submitting a proposal for the in-year allocation of MacEwan’s surplus. MacEwan went forward with four out of the six recommendations SAMU put forward. 

“Students are in an affordability crisis when it comes to cost of education and cost of living,” says La Torre. So, he’d like to see the surplus go, “anywhere where they can go back to students or back in the pockets of students.”

Aidan Fisher, who sits on the Finance Committee and has been a student councillor since October  says, “if they are increasing tuition, I’d love to see more professors, or at least more classes.” Fisher adds that some of the classes in his computer science major filled up immediately. 

Overall, as students continue to face increasing tuition and fees, La Torre and Fischer both recommend having a budget and Fischer says, “student loans are the best loans you can take.” 

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