Law School Tuition Fees

WHEREAS part of the mandate of the Canadian Bar Association is to promote equality in the legal profession;

WHEREAS Touchstones for Change: Equality, Diversity and Accountability (the Wilson Report) recognized that entry into law school was a significant barrier for disadvantaged groups, particularly those disadvantaged on the basis of gender, race, disabilities or sexual orientation;

WHEREAS the Working Group on Racial Equality found that the cost of legal education has a disproportionate impact on students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, including students from racialized communities;

WHEREAS continued federal and provincial cutbacks in funding post secondary education have created a financial crisis in the education system;

WHEREAS law faculties have been burdened with the challenge of increased costs and decreased funding;

WHEREAS law school tuition fees have increased significantly in the last decade and will likely continue to increase;

WHEREAS financial assistance for students in the form of grants, bursaries and loans has not kept pace with increasing tuition fees;

WHEREAS high tuition fees discourage students from low or modest income families from considering legal education, thus decreasing diversity in the legal profession;

WHEREAS high student debt often constrains the career choices made by law students;

WHEREAS the Canadian Bar Association is committed to promoting the interests of student members;

WHEREAS the Canadian Bar Association, through the Young Lawyers Conference, is a member of National Professional Association Coalition on Tuition (NPACT);

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Canadian Bar Association:

1. urge provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for post-secondary education to review deregulation of law school tuition fees;
2. urge the federal government and provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for post-secondary education to increase financial support for students in professional programs;
3. urge faculties of law and universities to adopt tuition policies that give high importance to access, and to take all measures necessary to ensure that qualified candidates are not excluded from law school because of financial hardship;
4. urge law societies in each province and territory to act against the negative impact of high tuition fees on the accessibility of legal education;
5. urge members of the legal profession to make financial contributions to law schools, with a view to alieviating the impact of higher tuition fees; and
6. affirm its commitment to the objectives of NPACT, namely: to ensure regulated and reasonable tuition fees; to realize an increase in federal government funding of post-secondary institutions to alleviate some of the pressures driving tuition fee increases; and to achieve financial support systems for students that are: non-coercive (i.e. not forcing recent graduates to practice in a specific geographic location); developed in conjunction with any tuition increase; in direct proportion to the tuition fee increase; and at levels that meet students' needs.

Certified true copy of a resolution carried as amended by the Council of the Canadian Bar Association at the Annual Meeting held in London ON, August 10-11, 2002.

John D.V. Hoyles

Executive Director/Directeur exécutif