The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold: to investigate the quality of the information available to Canadians and whether or not that information might affect rational decision-making in such a way as to be called a “barrier” to education in its own right. [...] Educational Policy Institute 5 The Canadian Context In Canadian discussions on access to education, the barrier to education At least that receives the most emphasis is the cost of education. [...] This leads us to the second assumption required to sustain the cost-as-barrier thesis: that both the costs and the benefits of post-secondary education (PSE) are well-known and Educational Policy Institute 6 well-understood, so that families and individuals make decisions based on There is no fact. [...] Leslie and Brinkman (1988) made estimates regarding the negative effects of tuition on enrol- ment and estimated the effects of a $100 increase in tuition (net of changes in student assistance) as leading to diminutions of enrolments on the order of 0.7%. [...] Rational Cost-Benefit Analysis of Post-Secondary Education in Canada Looking at the difference between Census-reported average earnings of university and high school graduates ($27,191 per year) versus the average cost of tuition ($3,749 per year), it is clear that in purely financial terms, the cost of a university education is indeed a good long-term investment.