A report released last month looking at the link between tuition fees and access to post-secondary education is deeply flawed, says the Canadian Federation of Students.

The latest Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation research study, Changes in Tuition Policy: Natural Policy Experiments in Five Countries, examines tuition increases, reductions and freezes in four Canadian provinces, three American states, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. The report found that tuition increases in some jurisdictions did not have a negative impact on total university enrolment, while tuition freezes or reductions did not always have a positive impact on enrolment as expected.

"A tuition policy change, on its own, will not necessarily have a meaningful impact on access to higher education, especially if no provision is made to increase the availability of university spaces," said Norman Riddell, the foundation's executive director. "Tuition policy needs to be addressed as part of a greater whole."

But CFS national chairperson George Soule said the report reveals nothing about how tuition fees affect access to university and college because it confuses "enrolment" with "access."

"Just because enrolment has increased in some jurisdictions doesn't mean that post-secondary education is more accessible to low-income students," Soule said.

Soule contends the foundation, a private not-for-profit organization created by Parliament in 1998, has increasingly used funds from its public endowment to downplay the impact of tuition fees and student debt on access to public education.

"The foundation's mandate is to administer scholarships for the federal government, not to be a mouthpiece for higher tuition fees and higher student debt," Soule said.

To view the report visit the foundation's web site www.millenniumscholarships.ca.