Guelph MPP Liz Sandals says the revamped OSAP student loan program is a positive step in making post-secondary education more accessible and affordable.
While the changes to OSAP were announced last year, it has taken a while for the provincial Liberal government to fine tune the details. In addition to increasing the grant portion of the OSAP grant/loan program for low income students, Sandals said the goal was also to make the program more streamlined and understandable.
"It's important that those that have the ability to go to post-secondary education can go to post-secondary education," said Sandals, who met with members of the Shelldale community Monday morning at the Shelldale Centre to discuss the changes.
"The people that needed the info weren't getting the info."
One of the tools created by the province to help students and their families is an abbreviated online calculator that in a few clicks gives a rudimentary estimate of if and what grant/loan a student would be eligible for. It can be found at Ontario.ca/osap.
One examle shows that a student from a household with an annual income of under $50,000 looking to attend university and live away from home would be eligible for $8,700 grant and a $7,100 loan. The same scenario for a college-bound student is $6,900 grant and $5,100 loan.
That, Sandals said, covers tuition for most undergraduate degrees.
Professional degrees such as engineering and graduate degrees such as law school won't see their tuition covered, given, as Sandals said, there is an expectation they will have a "higher capacity" down the road to pay back their loans.
Under changes announced in last year's provincial budget and now finalized in advance of the upcoming OSAP application for the 2017-18 school year, Sandals said that tuition will now be free for over 150,000 students in the province.
"We are leveling the playing field so more students from Guelph can go on to college or university regardless of their financial backgrounds," Sandals said.
Over 26,000 students enrolled at the University of Guelph and its Humber campus received OSAP in 2015-16.
"I wish this was around when I was younger," said Dana Nuttley, one of the Shelldale community members attending the chat.
Nuttley said when he went to school it didn't matter how good your grades were if you couldn't afford to go to college or university.
"Now there's more incentive to do well," he said.
"This will definitely help my younger kids that will have the opportunity that my older kids didn't," Nuttley said.
The program, Sandals said, is largely geared to making post-secondary education more accessible to low income families.
"We know the data shows that students from upper middle families are four times as likely to go to post-secondary education," Sandals said. "We know there's a problem in getting students from low income families there."
Students and their families will still be expected to contribute to their education.
"There's an assumption, even with free tuition, that the student will bring something to the table," Sandals said. "Any kid anywhere can get a summer job."
