It’s normally 2-3%, and has little to do with an actual basket, as far as I can tell. The commonly used index in higher education is the American HEPI, and this past year it was 1%. UBC’s inflation was 3 times it.

Next years cohort will pay more than 2%. More than the 4% too, to cover the funding shortfall the guarantee will create.

My concern is that the guarantee expires after 4 years. After that 4 years, in order to synchronize with the incoming class’s tuition, that would be a 12% increase. That’s silly, given the number of programs UBC offers to try to keep you around for longer than 4 years.

For example, if tuition was $100 the first year of admission for an American entering Engineering Physics, their annual payments would look like:

$100, $102, $104.04, $106.13, $108.24, $121.67.

Note the jump. It might cause a barrier for some people to graduate, because costs spike up.

http://www.students.ubc.ca/tuitionconsultation/201112-tuition-proposal/isi-proposal/educational-cost-of-living-adjustment/

That said, most students don’t finish in four years. Average time to complete a degree at UBC is 4.5 years, because UBC offers a lot of programs to extend one’s time on campus. Co-op being the immediate example.

Perhaps the policy should be an ISI guarantee of 2%, provided full-time status is maintained. This would allow for more flexibility to pursue things such as co-op, without the fear of the 12% fifth year tuition hike that would adjust your guaranteed tuition level to the annually raised 4% rate.