The Board of Governors voted to increase tuition fees by two per cent for domestic students and between two and four per cent for international students at their last meeting of 2025.
Under the approved proposal, all new and continuing domestic students will see their tuition increase starting summer session 2026.
Two per cent is the maximum yearly increase for domestic students allowed under the province’s tuition limit policy. The cap does not apply to international students.
New international undergraduate students will see their tuition increase by four per cent, while continuing international undergraduates will see a three per cent increase. New and continuing international graduate students’ tuition will rise by two per cent for programs with standard rates, and four per cent for programs with specialized rates.
UBC Vancouver’s Provost and Vice-President, Academic Gage Averill explained in a presentation to the board that the tuition increase was necessary to preserve UBC’s long-term financial situation as the university continues to face “rising pressures from costs, unpredictable policy shifts [and] revenue volatility.”
He noted that UBC was expecting a $58 million increase in costs — such as salary increases and unavoidable expenses — for the next financial year. The proposed tuition increase will bring in only an additional $8 million.
“The rest would be handled with a combination of optimization and cost-cutting,” Averill said.
Averill also said that the increases were in line with both peer institutions' tuition increases, which rose three to six per cent over the past three years, and inflation. Over the past 12 months, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.2 per cent, while in financial year 2025, the Higher Education Price Index, a measure of inflation at colleges and universities in the United States, rose 3.6 per cent.
“We believe the proposed tuition increases are modest,” he said, “intended to respond to rising costs and maintain UBC’s competitive position.”
The AMS voiced its "strong opposition" to the increases in a letter sent to governors days before the vote.
"Students are consistently asked to compensate for wider structural issues in the post-secondary sector, while data continues to show that they are struggling to meet basic needs," President Riley Huntley and VP Academic and University Affairs Zarifa Nawar wrote.
During the meeting, governors expressed both support and concern for increasing tuition.
Outgoing Faculty Governor Charles Menzies (hagwil hayetsk), who has protested tuition fee increases since the ’80s, said he would remain consistent to his convictions and principles by voting against the increase.
“I don’t want to be party to increasing the unaffordability of the lives of students. I don’t want to be a party to making their lives more miserable,” Menzies said. “And while I appreciate that the reasonable persons sitting at this table may think it’s in the best interests of UBC to vote to continuously and constantly raise tuition fees … I do not wish to be party to making things worse for our students.”
Student Governor Jasper Lorien stated that it was difficult to support this proposal when the university was not doing enough to help students through an ongoing affordability crisis.
“I cannot say in good faith that we are really meeting the needs of those students when we increase this tuition. I don’t think it’s going to [affordability measures] and I am deeply, deeply concerned,” they said.
However, some said that despite the unpopularity of tuition increases, they were needed.
Governor Natalie Chan said that while no one likes to increase tuition, she was hopeful that the university would find other ways to increase revenue so the burden would not fall on students.
Governor Anthonia Ogundele said that the conversation around tuition increases was the same year after year. Despite the concerns around affordability, she said she would support the proposal.
“I will vote in favour of the tuition increase because I understand the operational and labour implications” of not having of not generating the revenue, Ogundele said.
However, she cautioned that the university needs to act to support vulnerable students.
“I can commit that if there isn’t a very clear urgency on budget reimagining over the next couple years … There’s no way I can continue to support a tuition increase,” she said.
“We really do need to see the urgency in this as we also think about the vulnerability of the post-secondary sector.”
Last month, the province announced it was initiating a review of post-secondary education in BC, tasking former senior civil servant Don Avison with making recommendations to respond to the sector's funding crisis by March 15, 2026. Reactions were mixed, with critics saying the report's time frame is too rushed to thoroughly explore all options. The AMS expressed concern that the government might use the review to justify abandoning the current tuition limit policy, which has been in effect since 2005. Huntley and Nawar's letter to governors asked the university to lobby the government to keep the 2 per cent domestic tuition increase cap.
The motion passed, with Governors Cade Desjarlais, Irene Lanzinger, Jasper Lorien and Charles Menzies voting against.
