Students and others rallied outside the Colonial Building on a sunny Saturday afternoon against cuts to post-secondary education and to tell MUN and CNA to cut administration costs instead of hiking tuition fees.

Precious Familusi, an organizer of Black Lives Matter in Newfoundland and Labrador, says the institutions have to quit seeing international students, who pay significantly higher tuition, as a cash cow to subsidize other aspects of higher education.

McKenzie Nolan, who is from Port de Grave in Conception Bay North, says only a handful of students from her high school would go to university on the mainland but with the prospect of tuition doubling over the next five years, more students are now thinking about post-secondary beyond our borders.

She says even in the best of circumstances, students from rural Newfoundland are at a massive disadvantage, struggling just to pay rent.

The Federation of Labour is calling on the provincial government to reject all recommendations in the PERT Report, including cuts to higher learning subsidies.