The Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top scholarship, a well-known source of financial aid to Ontario university students, has been discontinued, according to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) website.
Beginning with the upcoming 2012-13 school year, OSAP will no longer distribute the scholarship to new applicants.
Students who are current recipients will still be able to continue receiving their scholarship for up to four years in total, according to the OSAP website.
The program, which had an annual budget of $35 million, gave assistance to approximately 14,000 Ontario students every year, said Gyula Kovacs, senior media relations and issues coordinator for the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities via email.
The average value was approximately $2,400 per recipient, Kovacs said.
The Aiming for the Top scholarship was phased out to streamline the student assistance program, and was also removed in order to pay for a portion of the new 30 per cent off tuition grant Kovacs said.
Students graduating high school had to apply through OSAP and had to be attending an approved post-secondary institution full-time, said Mark Robinson, supervisor of financial aid at Carleton University via email.
According to Robinson, the selection was based on academic performance and included students who were at the top of their graduating class. The actual value of the scholarship was determined by financial need, ranging from $100 to $3,500.
To continue receiving their scholarship, students had to achieve a 9.5 GPA and remain in full-time studies. If the minimum grade was not attained, the scholarship could not be renewed in upper years.
The percentage of Carleton students who were successful in renewing their scholarship throughout all four years of university was between 15 to 20 per cent, Robinson added.
Though the Aiming for the Top scholarship is being discontinued, Kovacs said the replacement 30 per cent off tuition grant has the potential to reach even more students.
“The new 30 per cent off Ontario tuition grant [has] so far helped 200,000 students. [It] makes post-secondary education more accessible and affordable for students from modest- and middle-income families,” Kovacs said.
Robinson said he agreed the new tuition grant will be able to help more students in general.
“Ideally of course I would like to see the Ontario government continue to fund both programs,” Robinson said.
“That said, although the value of the 30 per cent off Ontario tuition grant is less than the average value awarded under the Aiming for the Top Scholarship program, I think the new grant program does a better job of distributing non-repayable, need-based funding to the students who need it most.”
Jessica Tarka, a second-year biomedical sciences student at University of Guelph and recipient of the Aiming for the Top scholarship said she appreciated the help the scholarship provided her.
“For me personally, I’m paying for school on my own. I barely had enough money to get through first year, and the scholarship made a nice dent in the cost of tuition,” Tarka said.
Despite the new tuition grant, Tarka said she is not content with the discontinuation of the Aiming for the Top Scholarship.
“I think it’s ridiculous. Not every student who gets good marks is awarded with money from the school they plan on attending, and it’s a source of motivation for students to do well,”Tarka said.
“Although it could be argued that the scholarship has changed form, as tuition prices are the highest they have ever been, government aid should be increasing, not being cut.”
