Who had it better: This generation of students or the last?Rising tuition, rent and unemployment rates have always been a battle for post-secondary students in Nova Scotia. But just how bad is it? Frances Willick speaks to experts and crunches the numbers.On a sunny September afternoon, Rose Landry sits on a rock in a shady area of campus, eating her lunch out of a jar.The third-year English and history student at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax says she rarely strays from campus, but not really by choice.”I don’t leave campus because I can’t afford to do anything off campus,” Landry says. “I don’t do anything except for school.”The Peterborough, Ont., native is tightly focused on her finances — and her academics, because she knows if her grades drop, she’ll lose her scholarship, which pays for a sizable chunk of her yearly tuition.”I’m desperately clinging to my scholarship,” she says. “I wouldn’t be able to go if I didn’t have a scholarship…. I’d have to drop out.”Rose Landry is in her third year at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, and says she is very careful with her money and time to ensure she can afford to stay in school. (CBC)There’s a persistent drumbeat that drives the rhythm of Landry’s semester: money.And she is far from alone.Post-secondary students are in a crucible of pressure, facing high tuition costs, high unemployment rates, skyrocketing rent and ballooning prices on pretty much everything.But are today’s post-secondary students worse off than previous generations? Is getting an education while making ends meet more difficult now than it was 10, 25 or 50 years ago?TuitionIn Canada, tuition has risen steadily since the late 1970s, except for a blip in 2019, when Ontario reduced and then froze tuition fees. Average undergraduate tuition is now at its highest point ever, reaching $7,734 on average for Canadian students in 2025-26. But students in some provinces pay much more than that, with those in Nova Scotia leading the pack. They pay on average $9,988 per year, with New Brunswick a close second at $9,938, and Saskatchewan third, at $9,863.And it’s not just inflation that’s driving up tuition. In fact, average Canadian tuition fees are about double what they would be if tuition rates grew proportionally with inflation. In Nova Scotia, they’re triple.Government funding of post-secondary institutions has declined in recent years, pushing universities to rely more on tuition fees to make up the shortfall.EmploymentIn order to pay for tuition, students who are unable to rely on scholarships or financial support from family turn to a mix of employment and student loans.But how feasible is it for students to pay their own way through university these days?First of all, let’s look at how easy it is to get a job.Matt Cromwell is a student at the Nova Scotia Community College. He shares a room in an apartment with two other people in order to make his finances work. (CBC)Matt Cromwell, a 19-year-old Nova Scotia Community College student, says he applied for at least 100 jobs between leaving high school and starting at the college. He only received seven responses to those applications, four interviews, and one job offer as a dishwasher.Today, he works part time at a different job he says he only got because he knew someone who referred him.”It’s almost like you have to know someone or be related to someone to get a job right now,” he says.The employment rate across Canada for people aged 15 to 24 was 54.2 per cent in October — one of the lowest rates since the late 1990s, except for the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Some analysts say economic conditions including inflation, population growth and the effects of the U.S. trade war are contributing to the high unemployment rate.Assuming a student does get a job, is it enough to make ends meet?In Nova Scotia, minimum wage is $16.50 per hour. If a student worked 40 hours a week throughout the summer break from May to August, and, say, 18 hours each week during the school year from September to April, they would earn just over $20,000 per year, before taxes.So, sure — that’s enough to pay $9,988 in tuition, but does the remaining $10,000 or so cover housing?HousingAccording to a 2023 Ipsos poll, more post-secondary students were planning to live at a parent’s home, with that number rising to 47 per cent in 2023, compared with 36 per cent in 2013.But if a student is unable to live with a family member and must pay for lodging, the average rental price tips the overall affordability scale significantly.To stick with the Nova Scotia example, average monthly rent for a bachelor apartment in Halifax in early 2025 was $1,520, for a one-bedroom it was $1,770, and for a two-bedroom it was $2,230.On a yearly basis, that works out to $18,240 for a bachelor, $21,240 for a one-bedroom and $13,380 per person if two people are sharing a two-bedroom.And that’s without factoring in other costs, such as food, heating, taxes or anything else.So, for many, the answer to that earlier question about whether a student could work their way through university is a resounding no.Cromwell has found a workaround for the exorbitant housing costs. He shares a room — not an apartment, but a single room — in Dartmouth, N.S., with two other people, and splits the $870 rent three ways.He says making his way as a young person these days is hard, but he is still hopeful about the future.”I hope something changes because a lot of students like me who are young and like, I wouldn’t say lost, but a lot of students who … don’t have like the money or the time or like the support, I have no clue what they’re going to do. Makes me feel sad.”Student debtLoans are another avenue open to some students to pay for education.The percentage of Canadian undergraduate students with debt at graduation has remained pretty constant from 2000 to 2020, but the percentage that owed a large amount — $25,000 or more — has increased to 48 per cent of grads in 2020 from 33 per cent in 2000, according to Statistics Canada data. Average debt grew to $30,600 from $20,500 in that same time frame.In Nova Scotia, these statistics are more grim. While the percentage of bachelor’s degree graduates in Nova Scotia who had debt at graduation fell to 58 per cent from 67 per cent between 2000 and 2020, the percentage of grads owing $25,000 or more grew to 67 per cent from 50 per cent. Average debt at graduation grew to $39,100 from $26,800 — the second highest in the country, trailing P.E.I., which had an average debt of $43,500 upon graduation with a bachelor’s degree.’It is harder to be a young adult today'”The data are beyond contestation,” says Paul Kershaw, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. “It is harder to be a young adult today than it was some decades ago.” Kershaw has spent a lot of time thinking about generational differences in affordability. He’s the founder of Generation Squeeze, a charitable think-tank that advocates for generational fairness.Paul Kershaw is a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health, and founder of Generation Squeeze, a think-tank and advocacy organization that explores fairness between the generations, including in the housing market. (Submitted by Paul Kershaw)He says higher tuition, increasing debt upon graduation and difficulty finding work are key factors making life hard for this generation of young people. But it’s housing that’s at the epicentre of their challenges.”Compared to 25 years ago when I was a university student, it just wasn’t nearly so hard for me to pay my rent and I could get a summer job and cover most of my costs for a year,” Kershaw says. “That is like a hope and a prayer for most young people today.”As a result, some students choose to work more hours, or take fewer courses, or stretch out a four-year degree to five or even six in order to pay for it all.Grants, interest-free loans help”I would never say that this particular cohort that we’ve got is particularly blessed,” says Alex Usher, the president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy that provides guidance to governments, post-secondary institutions and other agencies.But Usher says the situation is not as dire as it may seem.For many students, the cost of tuition is offset by tax credits, matching government funds from the Canada Education Savings Grant program, grants, scholarships, and interest-free government loans — some of which did not exist for previous generations.”Every time tuition goes up, we add grants and it balances out,” he says.Usher acknowledges that housing is undeniably more expensive now, but he says most students have a degree of control over their living circumstances.Alex Usher is the president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy that provides guidance to governments, post-secondary institutions and other agencies. (Mark Bochsler/CBC)”If I’m from Toronto and I send my kid to [Dalhousie University], yeah, that kid is worse off. It’s more expensive to send that kid to Dal than it used to be because housing prices in Halifax are more expensive than they used to be. I don’t have to send my kid to Dal, right? They can go to York, they can go to U of T.”The decision to live with family rather than strike out on one’s own may come with a tradeoff, though, he says.”Students probably have less independence than they had 50, 60 years ago,” Usher says. “They do have to rely on parents a little bit more than they used to.”Usher says making comparisons over time is tricky, and depending on which factors one analyzes, it can show one generation is at an advantage over another.”Every cohort has its own set of challenges,” he says. “We should recognize which bits are good, which bits are bad, and see how we can adjust things to make life easier.”‘We need to fix budgets’Kershaw says there are plenty of adjustments the government could make to alleviate stresses for Gen Z by prioritizing their needs and channelling more funding into post-secondary education and housing.But whichever side of the generational equation one lands on, these comparisons are not meant to be divisive, he says.”I’m not pitting the generations against one another — the budget is. Politics is.”He says the love seen at the family table between generations just doesn’t translate to policies, and it should.”Parents and grandparents routinely make sacrifices for their kids and grandchildren,” Kershaw says. “They’d find it abhorrent to learn that actually politics is doing the exact opposite — it’s asking their kids and grandchildren to sacrifice for them.”We need to fix budgets that are becoming increasingly ageist towards younger people.”The bottom line — who had it worst?We took a snapshot of a student’s financial picture in the following years: 2025, 2010, 1995, 1980 and 1965.We took into consideration the student’s income from working 18 hours a week at minimum wage during the school year and 40 hours a week in the summer.We calculated the annual rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Halifax, and added the average annual tuition fee.What we found was that income did not cover expenditures for students from any of those years — and that’s not even including the cost of food, heating or taxes.There is a bit of nuance here, though. By our calculations, here is the percentage of a student’s expenditures that their income covered:2025: 64 per cent.2010: 82 per cent.1995: 67 per cent.1980: 86 per cent.1965: 58 per cent.So for those of you really hankering for an answer, perhaps the takeaway is that it’s simply hard to get by as a student.MORE TOP STORIES
The numbers don’t lie: The struggle is real for Gen Z students
