Quest University will be increasing its tuition fees by $1,500 for the upcoming school year.
Tuition is $32,500 per year for Canadian and international students. With the new increases, fees will rise to $34,000 for both types of students.
“As a small, independent liberal arts and sciences university, minor increases like these are necessary to cover inflation and rising costs,” said the school in a written statement to The Chief.
To help offset the increase, the university will be lowering the per-course fee for summer classes this year to $1,600 down from $4,250.
The discount will apply only to students who are also enrolled in four blocks in the fall of 2017.
Normal summer tuition pricing will resume next year.
The University defended the decision to raise prices, saying its costs are relatively low compared with similar institutions.
As an example, the school said Colorado College, a liberal arts institution in the U.S. that also offers courses on the block system, has an annual tuition of around US $50,000.
Quest University is one of a handful of schools that uses a block system, meaning courses are started and completed one at a time, instead of being spread out over the year simultaneously.
Proponents say this allows students to focus on classes without distractions and prevents learners from having their attention spread too thin.
On the other hand, critics say the block system shortens the amount of time a student spends with a course, which can be damaging for classes requiring more reading and discussion.
Quest University is registered as a charitable organization and made an annual revenue of more than $24 million between 2015 and 2016.
However, its expenses exceeded $28 million in the same period.
During that year, the university paid out more than $9.1 million to 88 full-time and 282 part-time employees, according to data kept about charitable organizations in B.C. Its highest earning full-time employee made between $250,000 and $299,999.
