Ontario announces major overhaul to OSAP funding rules

Local students are now worried about their futures

Students applying for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) this fall will be met with new changes.

Applicants will continue to be assessed based on financial need, but the mix of provincial grants and loans will be changing. Currently OSAP students can receive a maximum of 85 per cent grants in their funding, now that will drop to 25 per cent meaning 75 per cent of provincial assistance will be provided as loans.

Ontario will be negotiating an enhanced student access guarantee (SAG) with post-secondary institutions to provide additional financial support for tuition, books and mandatory fees for low-income students if OSAP funding does not cover those costs.

These changes arrive as an eight-year tuition freeze will be coming to an end across the province.

In the fall publicly assisted colleges and universities, like Fleming College’s Frost Campus in Lindsay, will be able to raise tuition fees up to two per cent per year for the next three years. Following this, increases will be limited to either two per cent or the average inflation rate.

The goal is to see post-secondary institutions deliver more programing that aligns with labour-market demand that will be supported by increased, predictable funding. This new long-term funding model will bring an additional $6.4 billion into the sector over four years and raise annual operating funding to $7 billion.

“(This) funding announcement comes at a critical time and will help ensure Ontario’s universities continue to protect and grow the province by delivering the talent and innovation needed to remain competitive and position Ontario for the future,” said Steve Orsini, president and CEO, Council of Ontario Universities.

Premier Doug Ford has received backlash over this announcement but is showing no signs of revisiting his changes to student loans or tuition fees, saying OSAP “is not a freebie anymore” and that “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

He also encouraged students to stop taking “basket-weaving courses” and instead to invest in education that gives people in-demand jobs, like in the healthcare sector or STEM courses. Ford has also made claims that students are abusing the system and instead of spending their grants on tuition and books, they’re spending it on non-essentials.

Katherin Guan, a Grade 12 student at I.E Weldon in Lindsay said while there might be some cases of students misusing their funds, “I think he’s punishing the collective for a small minority.”

Last year Guan was part of Queen Park’s model parliament where she was the minister of universities and colleges. Her and other students formed a bill that would increase the amount of grants given from OSAP and were informed the bill would be sent directly to Doug Ford.

For here these changes “demonstrates how much he really listens to students and how much he cares about the education system.”

“I think what frustrates me the most about the basket weaving comment is that it dehumanizes people and discourages students to dream bigger,” Guan said. While she agrees it is important for youth to be introduced to STEM classes in school, it can’t be expected that every student will want to follow that path in their post-secondary education.

For Grade 11 student Josephine Heber, it’s potentially changed her plans for post-secondary entirely. “I’ve wanted to go to McGill, and I’ve almost switched now to just going to wherever is going to give me the most money.”

Heber comes from a single income home, which generally results in higher OSAP eligibility and in previous years would have been a factor in receiving a higher amount of grants. She’ll still be applying for OSAP next year but the changes make her worry about just how much debt she’ll be in when it comes time for repayment. “I already work a lot after school, and it just feels like I’m going to have to burn myself out to be able to afford (university).”

“It puts a distrust in the government. That’s who we’re supposed to trust with our futures, and it just feels like (Ford) has thrown our future out.”

Eden Carter is also in Grade 11, and is not only frustrated for future students, but also the ones who are currently getting their degrees. “Now suddenly (students) have to pay back more money than they expected.”

The three students are frustrated by the changes and are now following suit with other students across the province who are planning protests.

“I feel like long term there needs to be an Ontario student interest organization that we elect and that is able to hold the government accountable,” said Guan. She feels that students of all education levels, teachers and professors should be the ones making these kinds of decisions.