McMaster's Board of Governors approved tuition and miscellaneous fees for the 2003/04 academic year. To keep McMaster's programs competitive and innovative, fees will increase in medicine, business and engineering and tuition will increase 2 per cent in basic arts and sciences programs, based on a five-year provincial government cap on tuition approved by the Board in June 2000.

In medicine, fees will increase 7 per cent, to $14,445 from $13,500. The funds will help support rising costs in faculty and facilities, which have gone up 5 per cent a year.

McMaster has the lowest total tuition of all Ontario medical schools in Ontario. McMaster's total tuition is $40,000, compared with the University of Toronto, which is $59,000 and Queen's University, which is $50,000.

Bursaries for medical students have increased 33 per cent to $2.2 million from $1.7 million, the highest amount given out to students at medical schools across Ontario. An average bursary to a medical student at McMaster is $6,900.

Student tuition pays one-third of the cost of a medical education, estimated to be about $50,000 per year.

The Michael DeGroote School of Business will increase MBA tuition fees 20 per cent for each of the next two years. MBA tuition is $9,600 for two terms in 2003/04 and $11,520 for two terms in 2004/05, for a total tuition cost to a student entering this fall of $21,120.

“This is in keeping with our previously announced intention to continue to increase tuition fees to improve our competitive position amongst leading MBA schools,” says dean of business Vishwanath Baba.

Tuition fees support a number of initiatives, he says, including faculty hiring and recruitment, infrastructure, marketing, MBA case competitions, IT infrastructure and hiring of staff to expand international programs.

Fees in engineering will increase by 12 per cent for each of the next three years to between $4,946 to $5,371, up from $4,796 last year. From the increase, 30 per cent supports student bursaries, 30 per cent funds central administration and 40 per cent supports faculty and new educational programming, says dean Mohamed Elbestawi. “We do not see that the status quo is an option,” he says. “We see no choice but to expand and improve these programs in order to attract the best students to the Faculty of Engineering program.”

Graduate fees in all programs, other than MBA, are frozen at $1,474 per term, or $4,422 annually. Undergraduate and graduate international fees have been frozen at 2002/03 levels with the exception of engineering, where fees will increase by 12 per cent for each of the next three years and business, which will increase tuition 11 per cent in MBA visa tuition.

Midwifery tuition fees will increase 5 per cent to $4,234.

Miscellaneous fees are related to fees charged for services provided by the University as well as specific student fees levied by student referendum and collected by the University on behalf of various student groups.