Law school is expensive.
This academic year, each of us will pay Osgoode somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000. That’s more than 75% of the median Canadian’s income.
When you do the math, each of us effectively pays Osgoode about $50 per hour of class time [At 17 credits, $43/hour (17 hrs x 15 weeks x 2 semesters) and at 13 credits, $56/hour (13 hours x 15 weeks x 2 semesters)]. And keep in mind that this $22,000 only covers tuition and fees. When you add books and conservative living expenses (as budgeted by the Osgoode Office of Financial Services), the total cost of a three-year Osgoode JD easily exceeds $120,000.
The rising cost of law school is an issue that should matter to everyone.
Osgoode’s current tuition costs reduce the meritocracy of the admissions system. It cuts down the diversity of our classes and ultimately, the legal profession, without reference to a candidate’s academics or other qualifications. In a way, Osgoode’s tuition is like those amusement park ride warning signs that require that “you must be THIS tall to ride”, except the Osgoode warning sign would say that “your personal wealth and/or acceptance of potentially life-altering debt must be THIS big to attend the law school.”
Moreover, Osgoode’s current tuition rates also limit the career and life choices of students. Students who might have otherwise pursued areas of practice such as social justice or the public service are pulled towards higher-paying options in order to pay off their debt loads. This in turn reduces the public’s access to legal services while disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups. The steep price of law school tuition has contributed to the sad irony of our legal system: where average Canadians can’t afford to use a lawyer when they need one, but simultaneously there is underemployment of articling students and legal professionals.
Student Caucus April 2013 Report
The following bullets hit on key points from an investigation done by a Student Caucus member and published by the Obiter Dicta in April 2013. If you are interested in why you are asked to pay $22,000 and where that money goes, I strongly urge you to read the full article. A link is provided below.
- Osgoode’s tuition currently increases at 5% per year, which the maximum rate permitted by statute. This rate exceeds inflation. At this rate of increase, tuition will surpass $33,000 in 9 years.
- Osgoode’s tuition has three main drivers: 1) enhancement of academic programs and the student experience, 2) increasing the number of full-time faculty, and 3) to pay for rising salary and benefit costs.
- Osgoode’s annual operating expenses are $23 million; of this amount, 81.67% went to salaries and benefits while the remaining percentage was spent on operating costs, utilities, scholarships and bursaries. Full-time faculty receive $10.7 million of this pie, while support staff receive $6 million.
- Osgoode possesses the fourth highest ratio of students-to-professors in Canada, at 16.2 – in comparison, the University of Toronto has the lowest ratio at 10.
- Financial aid per student as a percentage of student cost was found to be similar at the four schools that were compared, namely Osgoode, U of T, Ottawa (civil law), and Western – all four schools allocated total financial aid that was between 16% and 20% of total student cost, per student.
So what can you do about it?
To study tuition issues further, Student Caucus has formed a working group to study the causes of high tuition and ultimately, to develop work product aimed at reducing the financial barriers of entry into law school in Ontario and increasing the capability of students to pursue career alternatives that may be less financially remunerative than practice at a large firm. All Osgoode students with an interest in these issues are invited to join this working group. Please email Tuition.at.Osgoode@gmail.com for more information. If you would like further reading on Ontario law school tuition, the following may be of interest:
- Starting the Conversation on Tuition, the aforementioned Obiter Dicta article from April 2013: https://obiter-dicta.ca/2013/04/06/starting-the-conversation-on-tuition/
- A recent Globe and Mail article from a U of T student: http://goo.gl/rB3wBl
- Ultra Vires’ articles on tuition: http://ultravires.ca/tag/tuition/
- The UT Law Tuition Petition: http://tuitionpetition.ca
- The Windsor Star’s coverage of tuition research done by a Windsor Law student: http://goo.gl/sB845x
- An article from the Canadian Bar Association: http://www.cba.org/cba/national/Students/Student01.aspx
- The LSUC’s Career Choices Study (starts on page 34): http://goo.gl/pcjqiQ