Canadians want the federal government to do more to make education more affordable, a new CAUT survey shows.

"People are clearly saying they find university and college tuition too high," said Loretta Czernis, president of CAUT. "Students and their families are really struggling to pay for the kind of quality education demanded in today's world."

Two-thirds of the people surveyed in the poll carried out by Decima Research believe that university and college tuition fees are not affordable, with most people surveyed in Atlantic Canada (79 per cent) saying so.

A little more than half the people surveyed said the federal government should provide a free university or college education to any qualified student who can't afford to pay. A majority also want the government to guarantee a university or college spot for every qualified student, even if that means spending more tax money.

"Canadians seem to understand more than their political leaders that post-secondary education is critical to our social and economic development," Czernis said.

Support for free tuition for needy students is highest in Atlantic Canada, where nearly 60 per cent surveyed supported the idea.

Czernis said the survey also underlines that post-secondary education is now a major political issue with the public.

When asked what the next priority should be for the federal government following the recently negotiated health care accord, 23 per cent in the survey said reducing poverty and unemployment while 22 per cent said making post-secondary education more affordable. Fewer (17 per cent) identified lowering taxes and 12 per cent said paying down the debt. The least popular priorities were preserving the environment (8 per cent), military spending (7 per cent), and funding a national childcare program (7 per cent).

The survey also found that almost seven out of 10 people felt the federal government should increase the amount of money it currently spends on post-secondary education, while reducing tuition fees was identified by half the people surveyed as the most important priority of any new funding initiative.

"Clearly, Canadians want more leadership from Ottawa on dealing with the skyrocketing cost of education," Czernis said.

The survey, conducted for CAUT by Decima Research Inc., is based on interviews with 2,000 adult Canadians between October 7 and October 18, 2004. National results are considered accurate within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times in 20.