Student fees are increasing effective this coming fall term, particularly Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Graduate Student Association (GSA) associated fees.

The decision was officially approved at a June 17 Board of Governors meeting. 

The largest year over year increases include the WUSA student assistance plan (regular) fee, which is going up to $4.46 from $1.63, a 173.6 per cent increase. The WUSA student assistance plan (co-op) fee is increasing 139.1 per cent, up to $8.37 from $3.50. WUSA fees were approved by the board of directors in April.

Other notable year over year increases include the St. Jerome’s University (SJU) students’ union part-time fee, which is doubling, up to $10 from $5. Their students’ union full time fee is also increasing 50 per cent, up to $15 from $10. These fees were approved in an SJU board of governors meeting on March 6.

Other WUSA fee increases include operations (membership fee), which will go up to $45.20 from $42.19 (7.1 per cent); student life (membership fee) will increase to $52.26 from $44.86 (16.5 per cent); academic support and advisory (membership fee) will be $24.11 from $20.69 (16.5 per cent); UG capital program will increase to $18.50 from $17.33 (6.8 per cent); student refugee program will increase to $5.66 from $5.53 (2.4 per cent); UW student publications will go up to $5.53 from $5.40 (2.4 per cent increase); orientation fee will be $137.67 from $134.44 (2.4 per cent); and the Grand River Transit UPass will increase to $131.16 from $124.92 (5 per cent).

The GSA membership fee will increase to $25.71 from $25.11 (2.4 per cent), the GSA health insurance will go up to $81 from $74.55 (8.7 per cent), while the Grand River Transit UPass will be $125.16 from $119.22 (5 per cent). These were approved by the GSA board of directors in April.

The engineering society fee will increase 4.1 per cent to $21.30, the mathematics society fee will increase 2 per cent to $19.85, and the software engineering society fee will go up 3.1 per cent to $41.15.

The SLC/PAC expansion fee will increase 2.4 per cent to $21.17. 

The University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP) will increase 4.8 per cent to $264. This proposed fee was approved by the UHIP steering committee in May. The fee applies to all full and part time international graduate and undergraduate students.