For the last six weeks I’ve been engaged in dialogue with Langara College over their commitment fees. If you haven’t been reading my site you can read all about it here. Anyways, I am pleased to say that my battle against the fees has come to a peaceful resolution. It’s really encouraging to know that if you stand up you can make a difference. I received the following email from the President of Langara College:

I just thought I’d update you on the issue that you brought to my attention.

I have now obtained the figures on the ‘walk-away” rate for Career and Limited Enrolment programs at Langara.

You will remember that I had identified that the purpose of the Committment fee, and the increase in the fee from $100 to $350 was to try to ensure that programs were indeed full in their first year intakes and that as many students as possible had enough lead time to prepare for two years of study in the program to which they had applied, when they met the admission criteria.

When comparing the statistics from two intakes where the fee was $100, to one intake last fall where the fee was $350, there was little change in the average walk-away rate of approximately 7%. In fact, something that is interesting is that the program that you are entering has one of the largest walkaway rates at 15%, that is, 4 out of 26 students who pay a committment fee do not register.

Statistics aside, I am meeting with the people in Financial Aid to put together a plan to help students who have a problem paying the $350, and that plan should be in place the next time Committment fees come around again.