Over the Edge - February 15 news & features STUDENTS MORE THAN PAY OFF TUITION SUBSIDIES THROUGH FUTURE TAX REVENUE CCPA finds that future income tax from university graduates is greater than cost of degrees ARSHY MANN CUP WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF VANCOUVER (CUP) — A new study argues that students aren’t the freeloaders that some might believe them to be. “Paid in Full: Who Pays for Univer- sity Education in B.C.,” published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), has found that British Columbians with a post-sec- ondary degree contribute more to the public coffers through future income taxes than it would cost taxpayers to entirely pay for their entire degrees now. “There seems to be a conventional wisdom ... that students are subsid- ized and they should stop complaining about high tuition fees because really taxpayers pay for their education,” said Iglika Ivanova, an economist with the CCPA and the author of the report. “But because [post-secondary gradu- ates] earn more money, they end up paying more taxes. The question is how much more do they pay in taxes and is that enough to cover the up- front costs of their degree.” In the study, Ivanova compared how much it costs to fund a four-year degree to the expected lifetime in- come tax contributions of a univer- sity graduate. The higher earnings of Josh Curran, Student Loans degree-holders combined with lower rates of dependence on welfare or employment insurance meant that stu- dents more than end up end up paying their own way. “A lot of people, when you talk about lowering tuition fees, think you’re saying you want to subsidize educa- tion,” said Ivanova. “But you’re not really subsidizing it. They pay.” According to her findings, govern- ments could cover the entire cost of tuition twice-over and would still be getting a bargain. The CCPA study didn’t take into ac- count the various other ways that degree-holders contribute to the economy, such as by paying higher consumption taxes, contributing to economic growth and through in- novation. Ivanova embarked on the project in order to update a previous CCPA study done by UBC economist Robert Allen in 1998, which came to a simi- lar conclusion. She was interested if Allen’s findings still held at a time that tuition rates increased substantially and British Columbians were paying less in taxes. “Some people have speculated that we have so many graduates now [and] that university education isn’t what it used to be. Maybe it no longer has a payoff for students,” she said. “But by and large we continue to find that almost every field of study in- cluding things that you would think have no practical value, like human- ities, pay for themselves.” There was only one discipline that didn’t cover its own cost — visual arts — and that’s because artists tend to earn considerably less than their peers in other professions. Ivanova went on to argue that because many prospective students experience “sticker shock” when confronted with the high cost of a university degree, they may decide to pass on higher education and that governments are therefore missing out on the potential tax revenue. “So why are we putting barriers to education for so many people by hav- ing high tuition fees instead of mak- ing sure that everyone who wants to can get an education and contribute to society?” she said. Zach Crispin, the chairperson for the B.C. wing of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) argued that deci- sion-makers should take heed of this study. “I would definitely hope that [gov- ernments] would take a look at the data that’s been presented here by the CCPA and at least choose to freeze and work towards reducing tuition fees in the short term and really think fully about getting rid of financial barriers to post-secondary education,” he said. He also pointed out that the study demonstrates that the net gains to the public treasury from higher education have actually been decreasing. “The fact is that when we used to have a more progressive tax system, those numbers were higher,” he said. “As we move to reduce tuition fees and increase the tax base through a progressive tax system, students are going to be paying for their education more times over and we can actually increase the quality of it at the same time.” Ivanova emphasized that regardless of how high tuition fees are, students end up paying for their degrees one way or another — it’s just a matter of when. “It’s economically feasible and fairer to ask graduates to pay for their de- grees through taxes after gradua- tion rather than asking them to pay through high tuition fees up front.” UNBC Teams up with Are You Swedish University Collaboration with Similar School HANNA PETERSEN NEWS EDITOR wo senior faculty members from Linnaeus Uni- versity paid a visit to UNBC in early February. Linnaeus University is located in a town called Vaxjo a city of 82,000 in southern Sweden. The con- nection between Linnaeus and UNBC seems to stem from the many similarities shared between the two universities. Vaxjo is in an area home to a large forest industry and the University has a focus on education and research connected with the forest and wood in- dustries. While Prince George and Vaxjo are similar in size and circumstance, Vaxjo is known to be one of the greenest cities in Europe. Vaxjo has used biomass to produce heat and electricity since 1980 and since 2011 the city had managed to produce 80% of that energy from renewable sources. Vaxjo is also developing a neighbourhood that showcases wood innovations including two eight story apartment buildings built mostly from wood. Vaxjo also has a fairly young university. Linnaeus was created in 2010 through a merger between two other schools; Vaxjo University and Kalmar Univer- sity College. University has around 34,000 students and 28 of them have participated in exchanges with UNBC since 1992. UNBC looks to Linnaeus for research and collab- oration in engineering education and research related to wood construction, bioenergy, and forest products. “There are uncanny similarities between Linnaeus and UNBC, and between Vaxjo and Prince George,” says UNBC President George Iwama. “As we look to ex- pand our programming in engineering and build upon our growing bioenergy program, there may be no bet- ter partner for us. We are excited to have such senior faculty from Linnaeus visit us to explore opportunities for collaboration.” The delegates who represented Linnaeus were Bjorn Zethraeus, the founder of the bioenergy degree pro- gram in Vaxjo and a professor at the University since 1998; and Thomas Thronqvist, who developed the education and research program on forest and wood technology at the University of Vaxjo in 1995 and who has been associated with the University from them on. Zethraeus and Thronqvist presented on the Swed- ish energy system and the use of biomass on February 6th, as well as their experiences over the past several decades. Getting Enough Sleep? LAURA BEVACQUA FEATURES EDITOR Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things on your ‘to do’ list? Ever wish that you could get more sleep but for whatever reason, you just can’t? Do you sometimes skip out on sleep so you can tie up those loose ends or find yourself addicted to watching an entire series of your favourite show? Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of sleep. I suggest you reflect on your sleeping habits and consider the points below as to why a healthy amount of sleep is essential for our wellbeing. 1. Sleep stimulates the immune system. Our body takes out sleep state as a time to repair itself and build internal things like tissue and bones. The body performs this throughout the day but while we are sleeping, the body is better able to focus on these activities without having to divide its attention. 2. Sleep reboots our energy. It is known that sleep is essential for every individ- ual. Adequate sleep ‘recharges’ our energy levels in order to sustain the amount of energy we require on a daily basis for various activities. On average, adults require eight to ten hours of sleep. Are you getting that much? 3. Sleep increases performance, alertness and concentration. When the body does not receive an adequate amount of sleep, the impacts and outcomes can be dam- aging. Our ability to perform, to be alert and to concentrate will all be hindered from a lack of sleep. Minimal sleep can lead to problems such as depression, anxiety, hormone imbalance, memory lapses and other symptoms. A lack of sleep can literally kill. When the mind and body do not fully rest, the chances of fatal incidents (for example, car accidents) are more likely to occur when the mind and your capacity to stay alert and attentive are low. According to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA), falling asleep while behind the wheel is responsible for at least 100,000 crashes on American highways. 4. Sleep can help you live a long, healthier balanced life. Like a healthy nutrition and exercise, studies have show that people who get the appropriate amount of sleep on a regular basis tend to live longer, healthier lives as compared to those who sleep too few (or even too many) hours each night.