More than one million undergraduate students hit the books this fall in Canada, breaking a new enrolment record.

New numbers out from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada show that 1,015,000 undergraduates registered in September 2011.

That same month student tuition fees went up again, running at higher than the rate of inflation, according to Statistics Canada figures.

AUCC president Paul Davidson offers a possible explanation that high enrolment numbers justify the skyrocketing cost of education: “Students, parents, and employers understand that a university degree is a sound investment in the future.”

And AUCC notes that “university graduates earn on average $1.3 million more over a lifetime than high school graduates, and they are less likely to be unemployed. Even during the recession, between 2008 and 2010, there were 300,000 net new jobs created for university graduates.”

But framing post-secondary studies as a low-risk business venture is not resonating with students these days.

The Canadian Federation of Students’ project on student loan debt says levels of borrowing are hitting record highs and the reality is that tuition is so high that few students can realistically expect to seek higher education without dealing with financial consequences years down the line.

“It’s disingenuous to claim in this economic climate that enormous debt loads are good investments for young people,” says Roxanne Du­bois, national chairperson of CFS. “Students know how important post-secondary education is for their future livelihoods, but governments need to appreciate this too.”

CFS says higher education should not be synonymous with student debt and warns that the federal education loans clock is ticking as it approaches its legal limit of $15 billion.

“Higher enrolments coupled with higher tuition fees will only exacerbate student indebtedness,” Dubois said. “Governments must recognize the intrinsic value of undergraduate education and fund it properly.”

The student federation called on the federal government to create a dedicated transfer for post-secondary education in a recent lobby blitz in Ottawa.