The primary purpose of the University of Calgary Students’ Union has changed dramatically over the years. Advocating for student issues is now at the heart of everything we do. The SU continually works on advocacy campaigns throughout the year, often working with or lobbying all levels of government, as well as UCalgary's administration.
While issues like tuition, housing, and mental health are always ongoing campaigns, some are more timely and may not be immediately reflected here.
Click the bars below to read about a particular topic. See any campaigns you'd like to get involved with? Check out our Advocacy home page to find out what we're up to, or email your VP External at suvpext@ucalgary.ca to learn more.
HOUSING
Canada has a student housing shortage. For students who rent during their studies, only 1 in 10 will secure a residence spot, leaving leaves over a million students competing for units in the communities around their campuses. This should concern everyone: few students live alone, meaning they often team up to rent by the room. They pay 25% more than other renter groups in the process, which can price out these demographics.
As one student renter survey shows, students don't always get a good deal for what they pay. Almost half live in units in need of repairs; nearly 1 in 5 have felt unsafe. Purpose-built student housing is vital for keeping students safe and free up demand for existing stock. The SU rallied behind the City of Calgary's 2023-24 Housing Strategy, which pledged millions to invest in student housing downtown, but work to realize this potential continues.
As part of the Calgary Student Alliance (a coalition of local students' associations), we secured commitments around affordable housing from candidates in the City of Calgary's October 2025 election. Your SU Vice-President External followed up in December by speaking on this issue to City Council at a budget hearing; the next month, the council allotted $10 million for non-market housing in Downtown.
We also made the case for residence funds and tenant protections in our official recommendations to the Government of Alberta ahead of the next provincial budget. Finally, we continue our years-long partnership with platform Places4Students that connects students to appropriate listings.
We are constantly exploring news ways to facilitate building or allocating purpose-built student units in Alberta, whether that is with the province University, or all three.
TUITION
Since 2019, the Government of Alberta has dramatically reduced the operating budgets of Alberta's public post-secondaries. Our institutions now self-generate 58% of their revenue (p. 78), meaning they no longer fit the federal definition of a "public" post-secondary. This is despite the fact that post-secondaries are vital to the economic prosperity of modern economies, conducting over a third of Canada's research and development.
Albertan students are increasingly expected to make up for funding gaps. The average cost of an Albertan undergraduate education has climbed every year since 2019, and students now pay more than the national average. Funding cuts have impacted the quality of education for many: the University of Calgary owes nearly $1 billion in outstanding maintenance as of 2025.
Although increases to domestic tuition have been capped at 2% annually by the province, mechanisms exist under the Alberta Tuition Framework for post-secondaries to seek 'exceptional' tuition increases, and increase mandatory non-instructional fees as they see fit. The SU is pushing the University to demonstrate that it has identified wastage, and is providing value for money, before resorting to tuition hikes.
In late 2024, the Government of Alberta convened an Expert Panel to review how our campuses are funded. We put a spotlight on your experiences by being one of only two independent students' associations that made in-person and written submissions to the Panel in early 2025. The Panel's final report, released October 2025, contains many suggestions that could help students, even addressing some of the SU's direct concerns. It recommends, among other things, more public funding to post-secondaries and more non-repayable aid via Alberta Student Aid (grants, not loans!). While the province decides next steps, see our student's guide on what the report could mean for you.
On-campus, SU Executives participate in the annual Tuition & Fees Consultation Committee, where we debate proposed increases with University leadership and share data and opinions directly from students on their affordability struggles. In 2024, we teamed up with other students' associations to lobby against Exceptional Tuition Increases, leading to the Ministry of Advanced Education issuing a blanket refusal to grant permission for any ETIs. This year (2025), the University declined to attempt applying again. In early 2025, we ran a prerequisite survey to learn how many students struggle to enrol in classes they need to graduate due to budget cuts and competition for seats, and presented some of this data to the Committee.
MENTAL HEALTH
In Canada, mental health concerns among youth and post-secondary students are on the rise. When students don't receive the support they need, their academic performance can suffer, if they are able to graduate at all.
The Government of Alberta supports the delivery of on-campus mental health provision through the Post-Secondary Student Mental Health Grant (PSMHG). This grant, which disburses $8 million annually, was renewed on a one-year basis until the 2021-2022 fiscal year, when it was extended for disbursement over three-year periods.
It came due for renewal in Budget 2025, so ahead of the February 2025 announcement of this budget, the SU partnered with two other students' associations to advocate for the grant's renewal in our official budget recommendations.
We were grateful to see that Budget 2025 recommitted to the mental health grant, addressing our budget recommendations. Still, the work continues: on-campus, we provide a mental health bursary to students in need of more support. We also recognize students who contribute to mental health advocacy, harm reduction and dialogue through the SU Mental Health Award. The SU Wellness Centre and Student Wellness Services offer support on-campus for all members of the campus community.
STUDENT WORK
Alberta was once able to connect high school and postsecondary students to a wide range of summer work placements through the long-running Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP), first introduced by Premier Peter Lougheed in 1972. The wage subsidy scheme provided up to 16 weeks of funding between May and August. The program was axed first between 2013 and 2016, then again in 2019.
The unemployment rate for Albertans aged 15 to 25 has been broadly above the national average since 2016. In summers where STEP was active (see pages 6 and 10), student unemployment was lower than in summers without STEP. Losing STEP wasn't just a blow to student work opportunities; its cancellation impacted Alberta’s wider economy. After its first elimination, a survey of non-profits and municipal governments revealed 56% would have to reduce some programs and services; 49% would hire fewer students. 36% wouldn't hire students at all.
Alberta has launched programs that aim to fill the gap since then, including the Work-Integrated Learning Industry Voucher pilot program and Alberta Youth Employment Incentive, but these programs stood to cost more to hire fewer young Albertans, and were not necessarily restricted to the summer months in which undergraduates most want to work. This is because summer work allows undergraduates to acquire valuable experience without jeopardizing their studies.
We continue to advocate for STEP to decision-makers, and have submitted formal cost analyses of the program to relevant Ministries. As our lobbying continues, we try to fill a little of the hole STEP left in students' hearts through our SUPERWork wage subsidy, available for eligible UCalgary undergraduates.
We believe that the provincial government should reinstate the Summer Temporary Employment Program, according to its 2019 guidelines.
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is all about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. The SU recognizes this is an intersectional issue requiring consideration of social responsibility, human rights, and Indigenous reconciliation.
Your SU maintains sustainability initiatives around Mac Hall, and encouraging other bodies to follow suit. Got a sustainability idea of your own? We run a Sustainability Fund to aid eligible initiatives.
We consult with the University's Office of Sustainability to exchange ideas and support for sustainability initiatives, new and existing. We promote sustainability initiatives from all layers of government, to make the University, province and country more sustainable on all fronts.
STUDENT FINANCIAL AID
Alberta Student Aid (ASA)—the provincial body that distributes loans, grants and scholarships to Albertan students—committed to prioritizing non-repayable aid in 2021, but little has changed since then. Annual reports provide that ASA disbursed 20% more loan dollars for the 2024-25 academic year than it did for 2021-22, even though the number of recipients was only 3% higher.
This means the cost of education has grown much faster than the number of students enrolling, resulting in Albertan learners accruing more debt than the national average. Compounding matters is that ASA is one of the last four provincial aid bodies in Canada to charge interest on loans.
While some students can apply for grants or loans, the value of many ASA awards has lagged inflation for years. The merit-based Louise McKinney scholarship, introduced in 1982, is one example. Initially valued at $3,000, it would need to be worth $9,000 in 2025-26 to have kept up with inflation; instead, its value actually fell to $2,500. Undergraduates are also ineligible to apply for ASA's needs-based full-time student grant.
The average Albertan undergraduate already pays more in tuition and fees than the national average. Coupled with ASA's grants-to-loans ratio, it becomes easier to guess why just 32% of low-income Albertan youths enrol in post-secondary compared to the national average of 43%.
On a national level, we participate in federal advocacy with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). Some campaigns concern student loans; one major success was the elimination of interest on federal student loans. For more on the gaps in federal student aid policy and CASA's ongoing student aid campaigns, see the 2024 report, Need Not Apply.
On a provincial level, we made submissions to an Expert Panel that worked throughout 2025 to review how our campuses are funded. We described Alberta Student Aid's loan-to-grants ratio as an issue, and the Panel's final report (October 2025) went on to agree: "The provincial government should provide more assistance to students in the form of non-repayable assistance rather than increasing the amount of assistance students are required to take on in loans." As the provincial government decides next steps, see our student's guide to what the report could mean for you.
Your SU President was elected CASA's Director of Advocacy for the 2025-26 academic year, providing UCalgary undergraduates with a direct line to one of Canada's largest federal student advocacy groups. In this role, the President is working on breaking down barriers to financial aid for students with disabilities.
Provincially, your SU is monitoring the province's response to the Expert Panel's advice. We met with the Minister of Advanced Education right after the report's release to share our support for its suggestions, especially those most favourable to undergraduates. We restated the need for student aid reform in our budget recommendations ahead of the next provincial budget, due in February 2026.
SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is an epidemic on Canadian campuses. A 2019 student survey suggests 45% of women and 37% of men may witness or experience unwanted sexualized behaviours in a post-secondary setting, rising to 1 in 6 among trans students. Yet few victims report the event to their post-secondary, for reasons including being unsure about how to make a report, to distrust in how it would be handled.
While Alberta's campuses have been ordered to revise or create SGBV policies, Alberta lacks the clarity of formal legislation seen in provinces such as Ontario and Quebec. A Ministerial Letter issued in 2022 to Alberta's public post-secondaries directed them to create and/or update their protocols, but gaps remain, particularly for students who engage in workplace learning. Will their post-secondary handle the report, or will their employer?
Our Executives sit on a range of academic and managerial committees, including the University's Board of Governors, and communicate with the administration about enhanced student consultation and gaps in existing protocols. The University's SGBV support office attends meetings of the Students' Legislative Council when updates are proposed to receive student feedback.
We met with the Minister and Critic of Arts, Culture and Status of Women in the 2024-25 academic year to provide the student perspective on other provinces' post-secondary SGBV legislation and will continue these discussions as the Legislature resumes in late 2025.
MANDATORY NON-INSTRUCTIONAL FEES
On top of tuition, the University charges mandatory non-instructional fees (MNIFs) to cover "specific goods or services that enhance the student experience," with all students paying MNIFs for Campus Recreation, Athletics, and Student Services. The University reports publicly on how it spends them, but older templates lacked crucial information that could help students understand if they get value for money, such as key performance indicators and forward-facing budgets (to compare planned to final spending).
As part of our work on the Tuition & Fee Consultation Committee, we drafted a new template for the University to use when they publicly report on how they spend these funds. We also consulted the Graduate Students' Association when crafting the template, as all students pay these fees and deserve to know where their money goes.
In early 2025, the University not only accepted the SU's template; the University even expanded its contents. We're excited to share that a 'renovated' MNIF report for the 2024-25 fiscal year was released fall 2025. Earlier, in late 2024, the SU contributed to a provincial review of MNIF guidelines, highlighting concerns ranging from the lack of a clear indirect expenses formula to the absence of forward-facing budgets in many MNIF reports.
We continue to refine MNIF reporting in the context of the Tuition & Fee Consultation Committee, particularly around the appropriateness of the University's overhead rate.
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Choosing to study in Alberta means an undergraduate can expect to pay more tuition than the national average, and graduate with more debt too. That’s before considering the cost of supplies: the University suggests students will spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks every year, which is a tough pill to swallow in a cost-of-living crisis. The Calgary Public Library Foundation reported that the average cost of a book in Canada is 20% higher in 2024 than it was in 2019.
Costly textbooks hurt both a student’s wallet and their academic prospects. One survey of American students found that 90% feared their grades would suffer if they did not buy materials on their reading list, but 65% still skipped at least one textbook, rising to 86% among those grappling with food insecurity. This is relevant to Alberta, where 1 in 4 households struggle with grocery prices.
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are free-to-access educational materials (e.g. materials in the public domain or publications freed from copyright) that can profoundly impact the cost, quality and accessibility of education. British Columbia's OER initiative has saved millions of dollars for students from comparatively small investments. Alberta dabbled in OER creation before through the now-dormant ABOER initiative. Alberta 2030, the province's 10-year post-secondary strategy, even cites OERs as an area of interest for the Ministry of Advanced Education. The SU would like to see some headway made on keeping costs down for students.
Ahead of the province's Budget 2025 and Budget 2026, we teamed up with other students' associations to promote these resources—and this work paid off in February 2026, when the province announced it will invest $1 million into OERs. As we wait to see how this takes shape, OERs have been created right here on campus since 2022, after the SU invested $500,000 to support faculty interested in crafting free resources.
Your SU Vice-President Academic participates in University committees and working groups that support the creation and distribution of OERs. We are looking into ways OERs could be integrated into municipal library platforms, and we continue to refine roadmaps for OERs in our communications with the Ministry of Advanced Education.
Page last updated: March 11, 2026