Ontario university students will be paying an average of $9,483 in tuition and mandatory fees by 2017, maintaining the province’s place as the most expensive when it comes to post-secondary education and one of the least affordable for middle- and low-income families, says a new study.

The projected 2017 tuition is triple what students paid 20 years ago, says the study to be released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Had tuition and mandatory fees in Ontario risen according to inflation from 1993, they would be about $3,665 today, and not the current $8,474, according to the centre’s analysis. Looking at tuition alone, it would be $3,047 today had it risen at the rate of inflation, and not $7,549.

The centre also found universities are increasingly charging out-of-province students higher tuition, or giving in-province students tuition discounts or bursaries, something it calls a “two-tier tuition policy.”

“It really undercuts the notion of universality and affordability,” said Erika Shaker, the centre’s education director. “It’s created a situation where student choice is largely determined by family income and the province you are located in and the province you want to attend school in.

“The smaller provinces are in a bind,” she also said. “If you are in Ontario, you have way more options than students from New Brunswick. In some instances, if you have to leave the province, and you are going to a province that has a two-tier fee structure, you are not able to benefit from that.”