Policy

 

Subsection 62. k) of the University of Regina Act states:

“[The Board may] fix and determine the fees to be paid for instruction in the several faculties of the university, the fees to be paid by regular and occasional students, the library fee, the laboratory fees, fees for examination, degrees and certificates and such other fees as may be considered advisable.”

The University of Regina Board of Governors retains full authority for the approval for any and all fees charged by the University except as delegated in this policy.  The purpose of this policy is to identify who has the authority to set fees for goods and services provided by the University of Regina.

Procedures

The University of Regina Board of Governors retains the authority to approve the fees set for the following items:

1.      All fees related to credit instruction, including but not limited to tuition, course fees, services fee, recreation and athletic fee, international student tuition differential fees, faculty student society fees, Co-operative Education fees, certificate course fees, etc.

2.      Ancillary Services fees (Bookstore, Residence Services, Parking Services, Food Services and Printing Services) - The overall Board mandate is that the group of ancillary units (excluding Residence Services) must collectively break even or make a small profit.  Residence Services must adhere to its 25 year business case budget.  In addition to this mandate, as part of the annual budget setting process, the Board retains the authority to approve increases in the Bookstore textbook gross margin percentage, the residence room rates and the parking rates.  All other fee setting decisions in the ancillary units are delegated to the AVP to whom each ancillary unit reports.

         The proposed budgets for each ancillary unit including any rate increases are reviewed and approved by the Ancillary Council.  The ancillary budgets are then included in the overall University budget for approval by the Board of Governors.

3.      University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) fees – URSU is an independent entity with its own governance structure and ability to set and collect fees.  The University has no authority over URSU.  However, a number of URSU fees are collected by the University from students on behalf of URSU (eg. Student union fee, student union related fees and health & dental plan premium).  The University Board retains the authority to approve the collection of any new URSU fees and to approve the collection of any increase in URSU fees that exceed the CPI (consumer price index) for Saskatchewan in the previous year.  The authority to approve the collection of annual increases to URSU fees that do not exceed the Saskatchewan CPI for the prior year is delegated to the AVP Finance. 

The University of Regina Board of Governors has delegated the authority to approve fees as follows:

1.      All fees related to non-credit instruction, including but not limited to tuition and course related material fees.  The Dean, Director, AVP or equivalent of each unit has the authority to adjust existing fees.  New fees are to be approved by the Budget Committee as part of the annual budget setting process.

2.      All non-instructional fees for the provision of goods and services.  The Dean, Director, AVP or equivalent of each unit has the authority to adjust existing fees.  New fees are to be approved by the Budget Committee as part of the annual budget setting process.  Examples include:

• Faculty of Kinesiology & Health Studies charging for Fitness Centre memberships, gym rentals, children swimming lessons, pool rentals, etc.;

• Faculty of Science charging for testing of air and soil samples;

• Conference and registration fees for University hosted events;

• Facilities Management charging partner organizations (eg.  Campion, Luther, Research Park) for utilities supplied to them;

• Facilities Management charging internal and external parties for renovation services; and

• Information Services charging the general public for cleaning viruses off of personal computers.

3.      Material fees related to credit courses.  Normal tuition and course fees charge students for normal costs of providing those courses.  Occasionally a course will incur unusually high costs such as travel for field trips or expensive materials consumed by the students (eg. film, clay).  In those exceptional cases, a faculty may request approval to charge a material fee to recover the costs of the consumable materials by completing a “University of Regina Special Fee Approval Form.”  The Vice-President (Administration) has the authority to approve such fee requests, and that authority has been delegated to the AVP Finance.  Requests for new fees less than $100 are not normally considered.

This signing authority for any of the items in this policy may be delegated as the person holding the signing authority deems appropriate.