In fact, Saskatchewan students now pay significantly higher tuition and fees than do most students in the U. S. The average tuition and other fees at public four-year universities in the United States this year are shown in Table 2. The average tuition and additional compulsory fees at Saskatchewan's three universities, $5,526, are higher than tuition and fees in three of the six regions in the U. [...] Tuition and fees in each of the various colleges/faculties at U of S and U of R are shown in Table 3. Tuition fees in Dentistry at the U of S are the highest in Canada. [...] Revenue for capital projects at the U of S has increased at an average rate of 60% in each of the years from 1999-00 to 2003-04, amounting to a total of $45.8 million in 2003-04, according to the annual U of S financial statements. [...] The majority of this funding comes from the province, though the construction of the CLS synchrotron at the U of S has resulted in large increases in federal contributions. [...] Thus, while total provincial funding for universities has increased over the past decade more in Saskatchewan than in other provinces, a significant portion of the increase in the past five years has been for research and capital expenses, and not for the operation of educational programs at the universities.

In fact, Saskatchewan students now pay significantly higher tuition and fees than do most students in the U. S. The average tuition and other fees at public four-year universities in the United States this year are shown in Table 2. The average tuition and additional compulsory fees at Saskatchewan's three universities, $5,526, are higher than tuition and fees in three of the six regions in the U. [...] Tuition and fees in each of the various colleges/faculties at U of S and U of R are shown in Table 3. Tuition fees in Dentistry at the U of S are the highest in Canada. [...] Revenue for capital projects at the U of S has increased at an average rate of 60% in each of the years from 1999-00 to 2003-04, amounting to a total of $45.8 million in 2003-04, according to the annual U of S financial statements. [...] The majority of this funding comes from the province, though the construction of the CLS synchrotron at the U of S has resulted in large increases in federal contributions. [...] Thus, while total provincial funding for universities has increased over the past decade more in Saskatchewan than in other provinces, a significant portion of the increase in the past five years has been for research and capital expenses, and not for the operation of educational programs at the universities.

Canadian universities are being slowly but inexorably corporatized. Casualizing academic labour, remaking students into consumers of education, implementing corporate management models and commercializing academic research all point to the ascendance of business interests and values in Canada’s higher education system. Academia, Inc. examines the tensions that result from the merging of two fundamentally incompatible institutions — the university and the corporation. Brownlee argues that moving from liberal education to corporate job training, public service to profit-making and critical research to commercial invention radically undermines the goals of higher education. Investigating the history, causes and impacts of corporatization, this book explores how this transformation has taken shape and its ramifications for both universities and society as a whole. Brownlee suggests several strategies for resisting this process.

For many of us, the drive to affect positive change--however vague or idiosyncratic our sense of this might be--has guided our work in higher education. We champion the pursuit of a college degree because few endeavors can match it in terms of advancing a person's economic mobility (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, and Yagan; 2017). Despite recent debates about the value of a college degree (Pew Research Center, 2017), the opportunities and financial stability awarded to those with college degrees remain apparent when they are compared to peers who have only graduated high school (Pew Research Center, 2014). And while more Americans have a college degree than ever before (Ryan and Bauman, 2016), access to a formal, post-secondary education continues to be elusive for some. Indeed, over the last ten years, analysts have projected that the cost of attending college would keep 2.4 million low-to-moderate income, college-qualified high school graduates from completing a college degree (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2006). During that same period, college students in the United States saw expenses related to tuition and fees increase by 63 percent, school housing costs (excluding board) increase by 51 percent, textbook prices increase by 88 percent (Bureau of Labor, 2016). Because few students can afford a college education by salary alone, 44.2 million Americans have sought financial aid via student loans. As a result, total student loan debt is now topping $1.45 trillion in the United States (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2017), and student loan delinquency rates are averaging 11.2 percent (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2017). The burden of a student's financial decisions extends beyond the mere individual: society will inevitably carry the weight of this debt for years to come.