Carleton students will encounter sweeping changes to their OSAP benefits next school year.
Last month, the provincial government announced that maximum OSAP grants will decrease from 85 per cent to 25 per cent for eligible students.
This means a student who pays $10,000 in tuition and qualifies for the maximum OSAP grant will receive $8,500 in grants this year. Next year, that same student could receive a maximum of $2,500 in grants. To cover the remaining $7,500 in tuition, the student can takeout loans to be repaid.
The changes come after a recent uptick in OSAP payouts, plus the federal government’s announcement that it would no longer offer grants for career college students beginning this August, Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn said in a press conference.
Quinn said the current OSAP system would be “unsustainable” as a result.
“With no action, this pressure would decimate OSAP, making it unavailable for future generations,” he said.
The policy changes coincide with a new $6-billion provincial investment in higher education over four years and the end of the seven-year tuition freeze.
Universities and colleges can now increase tuition by a rate of two per cent yearly, meaning a student who pays $10,000 in tuition could have to pay up to $200 more the following year.
What does CUSA say?
Aidan Kallioinen*, vice-president (student issues) of the Carleton University Students’ Association, said a rally has been planned to protest the changes to OSAP.
“What we’re seeing with these changes is assistance is shifting largely from grants to loans, and students graduating with more long-term debt as a result,” he said.
Kallioinen charged these changes will disproportionately affect students from poor and middle-class families.
Though the student union disapproves of the changes to OSAP, Kallioinen said the changes to university funding and tuition are welcome.
“The sector is struggling,” he said. “The domestic tuition freeze, in addition to the international student cap, significantly limited how universities could raise revenues and thereby draw more enrolment, create new programs, fund existing programs and pay staff an equitable wage.”
What do critics say?
OSAP was inadequate well before the new changes, according to Kayla Weiler, a member of the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students. The CFS is a national student organization funded through student levies from across Canada, including Carleton.
“OSAP has been a band-aid solution for many years now,” Weiler said. “If the government truly wanted to make education accessible for all students, they would put more funding into the OSAP system.”
Weiler added students should be prepared to incur more debt with the changes.
“Switching the OSAP system from non-repayable grants to a higher proportion of loans is ultimately perpetuating the cycle of debt — and putting the burden of funding education onto students.”
Students who have to take out loans could end up paying more for their education than students who are able to pay upfront, she said.
Peggy Sattler, NDP MPP for London West and the party’s critic for Colleges and Universities, said the provincial government is mismanaging higher education.
“Under this government, our post-secondary sector has been brought to the brink of collapse,” Sattler said.
She added the policies that have come from Premier Doug Ford’s government, including the tuition freeze, have “led to the crisis that we are experiencing.”
Feb. 12 was “a bad day for students, when they learned that not only will students have to pay more for their tuition, but they will also have to rely on loans, not grants,” she said.
“They are looking at having to take on a huge burden of debt if they want to complete a post-secondary education.”
Sattler said she hopes enough pressure from students will force the province to back down on these changes.
“I’ve already been contacted by many students from across the province who are busy organizing rallies, protests and mobilizing other students to push back — because this is not the way to solve the crisis in our post-secondary sector.”
A rally promoted by CUSA and the University of Ottawa Students’ Union has been planned for Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. outside of the Faculty of Social Sciences building in Sandy Hill.
*Aidan Kallioinen has previously contributed to the Charlatan
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji/the Charlatan
This article, and all of the Charlatan’s work, is brought to you by an independent student newspaper dedicated to informing, uplifting and entertaining the Carleton University community. We are a levy-funded organization which plays a role in the broader, vibrant student culture on campus. By reading this article, you are supporting our efforts.
