By the time Natasha Cassel graduates with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing next year, she’ll have racked up more than $35,000 in debt.

The 25-year-old Ryerson University student has resigned herself to the fact that she’ll have to postpone life’s important milestones, such as buying a house or getting married, while she spends years paying off her loan.

And Cassel considers herself lucky.

“A lot of students will probably have as much debt as I will, or more,” she said. “I’m luckier than most students in that when I graduate, there are some jobs for nurses. So many students won’t get jobs.”

The situation facing Cassel and thousands of other university students across the country is reflected in new figures released by Statistics Canada Wednesday showing that average tuition fees for full-time undergraduate programs jumped five per cent this year.

That’s more than three times the rate of inflation, which was 1.3 per cent between July 2011 and July 2012. Average tuition fees for 2012-13 now sit at $5,581, up from $5,313 the year before.

All provinces saw a rise in fees, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, which froze tuition nine years ago. It remains the most affordable province for post-secondary education with average tuition fees of $2,649. Ontario, on the other hand, continues to have the highest average tuition fees in the country at $7,180, up from $6,307 in 2010-11.

In Quebec, where students made a proposed tuition increase a ballot-box question during the recent provincial election, tuition sits at $2,774, up from $2,415 during the last school year.

These numbers do not include additional compulsory fees, such as athletics and health fees, which further increase students’ debt burdens.

“I’ve heard people refer to tuition as Canada’s informal one-child policy,” said Erika Shaker, a researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of a study released this week that estimates average undergraduate tuition and compulsory fees will rise a further 18 per cent during the next four years.

Her study notes that the 60 per cent of Canadian undergraduate students finish school with an average debt of $27,000.

“We have to look at how not just the students individually pay for this, but how society pays for it as well,” Shaker said. “We’re looking at a postponement of these students becoming fully functioning members of society … they’re less likely to have assets, less likely to own a house. We are looking at lost potential.”

Some provincial governments, such as those in Newfoundland and Quebec, have opted to keep tuition low to encourage people of lower socio-economic standing to attend. Others, such as Ontario and Nova Scotia, offer debt relief programs and grants while tuition fees continue to increase.

“There has been a gradual move away from the use of highly subsidized tuition fee levels to recognizing student financial aid as the most important and effective policy tool to address many postsecondary education access issues,” said Gyula Kovacs, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. “Albeit significant, tuition is just one aspect of the total cost of pursuing higher education and student financial aid provides the appropriate policy levers and supports to address these costs.”

Sarah Jayne King, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, said students carrying high debt loads are less likely to finish their degrees, while the prospect of taking on debt has discouraged some from attending university altogether.

A 2009 national StatsCan survey found that 30 per cent of 18-24 year olds decided not to enroll in further education or training due to financial hardship.

“Debt also has an impact on whether you can finish your degree and the amount you may need to work during the school year,” King said. “More students are working during the school year to pay their tuition fees and other living expenses, such as textbooks, food and rent. The reality is that it’s not possible to work full time in the summer and make up anywhere near the amount of money you need to get through the school year.”

$27,000: average school-related debt carried by undergraduates finishing school

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$5,581: average tuition fee for undergraduates in 2012-13

$7,180: average 2012-13 tuition fee for undergraduates in Ontario

$2,774: average 2012-13 tuition fee for undergraduates in Quebec

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