Many Students Concerned About Outcome Of Ford’s Significant OSAP Cuts

Published June 20, 2019 at 4:07 pm

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Earlier this year, Doug Ford’s government announced many changes to OSAP funding. It effectively ended ‘free tuition’ for students and introduced a slew of other changes to post-secondary students.

In 2017, the previous Liberal government announced students from families with a combined income up to $175,000 would benefit from more generous grants and loans to assist with college and university expenses. This meant that more than one-third of all full-time college and university students in Ontario would receive free tuition.

However, when the Conservatives were elected, they stated that they are changing OSAP so the program will focus on lower-income earners. This means that 82 per cent of grants will go to students with a family income of less than $50,000. The program will also shift from giving out more grants to giving more loans, which would put additional burden on students. Interest on those loans will also accumulate immediately following graduation.

An Auditor General’s report noted that although more people were getting financial aid last year (24 per cent more university recipients and 27 per cent more college recipients) enrolment was not matching the funding increase, which was increased by only one per cent for universities and two per cent for colleges.

After the announcement of the OSAP changes, many students gathered to protest and were deeply concerned about their future.

Recently, students have been able to see how Ford’s policy played out in terms of their own grant and loan calculations.

Many students are sharing their opinions on Twitter. In fact, the hashtag OSAP has been trending in Ontario since earlier this week.

Many are upset about the updates to their loan and grant calculations.

Although, there were some students who felt that the new changes to the OSAP funding benefitted them.

What do you think of how these changes played out in practice?

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