VICTORIA — A British Columbia student leader has sounded the alarm over what they argue is a lack of funding for post-secondary education in the provincial budget.The 2026-27 budget sets aside $15,130,000 for the sector, which is a 0.46% increase over the year before, and less than a quarter of what's required to keep up with inflation."In a context when our post institutions are financially struggling due to decades of chronic government under funding and unsustainable funding formula, we can't afford sub-inflationary investment," University of British Columbia AMS VP External Solomon Yi-Kieran told the Western Standard, lamenting that "the province's threats of no new post-secondary funding are very much coming true."They noted that the budget also includes no net growth in student aid, scholarships, bursaries, or loan forgiveness."A 0% increase given inflation is effectively a real cut," Yi-Kieran argued, "so a real cut to these kind of important things is once again not something we want to see from a government that's supposed to be a progressive government."They also drew attention to the plan to axe 15,000 public service positions, warning that those could impact those working at post-secondary institutions.When asked whether they saw all this as a sign of what's to come," Yi-Kieran said, "it could be unless students really organize against it.".WATCH: Student leaders urge BC gov't to protect 2% tuition increase cap amid stagnating post-secondary spending.For months now, students have tried to convince the government to listen to their cries for help and spend more, not less, on higher education. Officials are set to conclude a post-secondary review in the coming weeks that could potentially see the 2% tuition increase cap lifted.."We've been making it a big deal," they said. "I know that that's how students were able to stop it last time in 2002. It was student organizing, the threat of these student protests, that made Gordon Campbell's government change course back when they got rid of the tuition limit policy over 20 years ago, so we are going to continue doing the same because this does look like a threat. It looks like a taste of things to come and we cannot, at this moment, afford government austerity in education. The government tried to say this wasn't an austerity budget, but I very much say it looks like one from the student perspective."Yi-Kieran argued that a robust post-secondary education system is integral to BC's success, pointing out that, "we live in a time when to grow an economy means we need to have well-educated people who are able to take on a diverse set of different fields and employment opportunities.".Students voice concerns over BC NDP higher-ed review, urge minister to protect 2% tuition increase cap."We're seeing shortages of doctors, shortages of nurses, shortages of social workers, of teachers, of other professionals, and we need to be consistently training up talent here that we're actually keeping and employing," they said.As for how this budget will impact young people's decision at the ballot box, Yi-Kieran made it clear parties need to earn the support of students."I see this government taking student votes for granted," they said. "I think parties do that all the time, and we need to see political parties actually fight for student support. When students vote, it will be based on whether governments are actually funding our interests and tackling the issues that matter to us. We need to see governments and parties actually invest in student priorities and show that they're hearing our concerns if they want our votes."
