IGNITE and Humber are separate but interdependent organizations  working to support Humber and Guelph-Humber students. Humber and IGNITE have a great working relationship that has resulted in many initiatives that have benefitted our students. At the same time, creative tension is a natural result of advocacy and there are occasions where both sides just disagree. 

Humber College recently announced its decision to increase international student tuition for the 2022-2023 academic year, effective May 2022. The wellbeing of our student body is of utmost priority to IGNITE, and is something that fuels our advocacy efforts for affordable education and essential supports.  This is why we advocated against this tuition increase, sharing our concerns of the impact to our international students with members of Humber’s senior leadership.  While we are disappointed in the institution’s final decision, we will continue our efforts to ensure the student voice is heard.  

IGNITE Student Engagement Coordinators and student Board of Directors take and will continue to take every opportunity available to advocate that Humber provide additional financial supports for our international students. For example, IGNITE’s consistent advocacy efforts have led to over $210,000 set aside in financial supports for international students.  

We will continue to advocate for Humber and Guelph-Humber international students as we move forward together. Action is needed. As a member of the College Student Alliance (CSA), IGNITE joins other Ontario college student unions to represent the collective voice of our student bodies to the government for the purpose of improving the student experience. We call on the provincial government to provide tuition relief for international students, to implement a tuition freeze for international students, and to commit to increasing the base operating grant fund for colleges to reduce the burden of covering operational costs on international students.   

For more details and further information about Humber’s financial support please visit their Managing Your Finances page. 

To see how else IGNITE is supporting you this fall, visit our Return to Campus update.

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