Kraft Dinner is a university student staple, but students like Blake Frederick say they have to eat more of it every time tuition goes up.
"I don't have the luxury of buying healthy food," Frederick said. "I barely have the luxury of buying fruits and vegetables."
The University of British Columbia philosophy student pays about $5,000 a year in tuition -- more than twice as much as students were charged in 2001.
"Psychologically it's impossible for me to wrap my head around how much money that is," he said.
The B.C. New Democrats promise to freeze tuition, and even reduce it when there's a balanced budget.
"Gordon Campbell's record on education has been a failure," NDP Leader Carole James said. "He says he wants more people to get an education, but what has he done? He's more than doubled tuition fees."
But how much has tuition really changed?
CTV looked at Statistics Canada data going back to 1990 when average undergraduate tuition in B.C. $1,800. Back then B.C. students were paying 25 per cent more than the rest of the country.
By 2001, the NDP had made B.C.'s rates the second lowest in the country.
Then the Liberals took over and average tuition in B.C. increased faster than anywhere else in Canada. It has doubled to $5,040 -- but compare it to the rest of the country and you can see students here now pay about the same as everyone else.
"The facts are we've put more money into the education system," Murray Coell, B.C.'s Minister of Advanced Education, said.
That may be true, but what Coell isn't saying is whether that's keeping pace with needs.
Rob Clift from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations says it isn't.
"We're being ravaged by inflation," Clift said. "Two per cent a year adds up."
And he's right. On a per-student basis, and taking inflation into account, post secondary funding in B.C. has shrunk under the Liberals.
Fredrick's tuition will jump another $100 next year -- another increase that will be tough to swallow.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
