Tuition to hit $19,000/year by 2031?

Fewer students will attend post-secondary institutions in 2031, but a much greater proportion will take out loans. They will face much higher tuition rates, and their loans at the end of a four-year degree will be higher. Maybe. That scenario is predicted in the Canada Student Loan Program’s (CSLP) seventh-annual actuarial report, released earlier today.

The only mainstream outlet to carry information on the report was the Toronto Star, which talked to a Scarborough-raised criminology student, Krisna Saravanamuttu, about his debt. Saravanamuttu faces $20,000 of debt after only three years of school. To put that in context, the report suggests that tuition — now averaging $5,800 per year for an undergrad degree in Canada — will rise to average over $19,000 a year by 2031.

The report also said that as of the end of July 2007, the amount of total direct loans in default was just over $1 billion.