The University of Calgary board approved a $450 non-academic fee to cover services including health and counselling services. (Kelsey Hipkin/CBC)

Student leaders are disappointed at the introduction of a mandatory fee at the University of Calgary that has nothing to do with tuition.

The university approved a non-instruction fee of $450 on Monday to be rolled out over the next three years to cover several school services, such as student advisers, financial aid programs, a health and wellness centre and a disability resource centre.

Those services — about $13 million annually, or $500 per student — were previously covered by the university's general operating budget, said James Stevenson, a spokesman for the U of C.

With Monday's budget decision to add the "student services general non-program fee," the costs are being shifted to students.

'Alberta's students deserve to have a say in establishing predictability about the costs they can expect to pay .'—Charlotte Kingston, students' union president

Alan Harrison, provost of the U of C, said everyone is feeling the impact of cuts and that students have to share the burden of the university's deficit budget.

But a disappointed Charlotte Kingston, president of the U of C students' union, told CBC News: "I think that students have always shared in the financial burden of this institution. We currently pay levied fees that are non-academic and on top of that we currently have the third highest tuition in the country."

The university board also rejected an amendment by the students' union for increases to the non-academic fee to be tied to the consumer price index, which measures inflation, and for a student referendum to approve any hikes beyond the rate of inflation.

"Students value the services the university provides, but are concerned this fee lacks the appropriate parameters for future increases. It leaves students with an unreasonable level of uncertainty," said Kingston.

Beginning this academic year, the fee will go up by $150 a year for the next three years until it hits $450 in 2012. It's anticipated to generate $4 million next year.

The U of C still has the lowest "compulsory fees" among Canada's 13 research universities, said Stevenson.

$37.6M deficit

In approving the 2010-11 budget, the U of C's board announced it will post a $37.6 million deficit.

"Overall I would say it was what I hope I can characterize as a spirit of compromise on all sides that in the difficult and financially straightened times led to a budget that the board endorsed," said Harrison.

The U of C needs to find a way to make up $2.4 million that it had expected from proposed tuition hikes to professional programs that were rejected by the province last week. However, the province did approve raising tuition beyond the rate of inflation for the U of C's Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Business Administration programs.

Kingston said the students' union continues to work with other Alberta student groups and the province's Advanced Education and Technology Department to draft regulations limiting the ability of post-secondary schools to shift operational costs onto students.

"Alberta's students deserve to have a say in establishing predictability about the costs they can expect to pay while pursuing post-secondary education," said Kingston.

With files from Meghan Grant