Across North America, student organizations have been mobilizing against increasing tuition rates at a variety of campuses, blaming a lack of access to post-secondary education on high fees.

The University of California Berkeley gained attention last week, when they held mass protests against the administration’s decision to increase tuition fees by 32 per cent. Earlier this month, Canadian universities such as UBC Okanagan and the University of Toronto held campus-wide student protests against increasing fees.

Despite a near-doubling of undergraduate tuition over the last decade at UBC Vancouver, the student outcry has been quiet, if heard at all, perhaps in part due to AMS policy.

“Currently the AMS policy on tuition fees states that it’s all right that tuition fees increase, so long as the increases stay within the two per cent cap,” explained AMS VP External Tim Chu.

The BC government has continued to maintain a cap on tuition fee increases, limiting universities such as UBC to a two per cent increase in tuition fees each year. This is something the Ministry of Advanced Education said remains in line with base inflation rates, and is able to compete with other provinces’ increases. On average, provinces outside of BC have seen their tuition fees increase by 3.6 per cent, explained Moira Stilwell, BC minister of advanced education.

However, while BC tuition increases have remained relatively below the average provincial tuition hikes, high fees have continued to be an issue for many students, especially those facing financial difficulty.

“Undergraduate tuition at UBC has doubled since 2002,” explained AMS President Blake Frederick, adding that this is a stark increase which, despite staying within the two per cent cap, has had a major impact on the overall tuition rates for UBC students.

“I find that when I ask students what action they would like to see from this student union, the majority are continuing to say they want to see a reduction in tuition fees, and they want to us lobby for that,” said Chu.

While personally elected on a platform to lobby for lower tuition, Chu has been limited from doing so due to the official AMS policy. “When I tell students about our current policy, they are outraged and often feel completely disenfranchised,” he said. “They don’t end up viewing us as an organization that acts for and supports students.”

While AMS executives such as Frederick have publicly supported student protests and direct action at schools such as Berkeley, UBC-O and U of T, calling them an effective way for students to communicate their displeasure with rising tuition costs, the lobbying efforts taken by the AMS have instead been aimed towards the provincial cuts to student aid, and the administration’s intention to ask the province to relax the two per cent cap.

Frederick suggests that students who take issue with UBC’s tuition fees should be approaching the decision-makers.

“Students who are seriously concerned about the financial barriers placed on their education should be more vocal and raise their concerns directly with UBC President Stephen Toope and Premier Gordon Campbell,” he said.

“We need to show UBC and the provincial government that no student should have to go into debt for pursuing their education.”

Chu added that concerned students should attend AMS Council, contact their representatives and make their stance on tuition rates clear.

“We need a broader approach in terms of driving this policy,” he said.

Meanwhile, U of T’s Student Union VP External Hadia Akhtar advises students fed up with tuition hikes at universities like UBC, to  “Organize. Unite. Mobilize….The fight for a basic human right like education can sometimes seem so obvious and so daunting at the same time.

“Students need to fight for accessible and affordable post-secondary education united with students across the country and the world,” she added.

“We need to…organize students under a united front to mobilize them for a coherent resistance against the attacks on public education.”