Post-secondary education for some students in Newfoundland and Labrador is about to become cheaper.
Following this year’s provincial budget, announced March 27, provincial student loans are being replaced on a go-forward basis with non-repayable grants, eliminating the provincial portion of student debt for students from Newfoundland and Labrador.
The 2014 budget also removes all interest on existing student loans and continues a 15-year tuition freeze at Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic.
The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) Newfoundland said in a press release the expanded needs-based grants program, combined with the existing tuition freeze, “will make Newfoundland and Labrador the most affordable place to study in the country.”
CFS-Newfoundland chairperson Michael Walsh said the measures will “pay dividends for Newfoundland and Labrador youth.”
Walsh said the expanded grants program for Newfoundland and Labrador, created thanks to a $50.6-million government commitment over five years, will be phased in over the next two years.
More than 7,000 students are expected to be eligible for the program.
“The tuition fee freeze and the needs-based grants program are programs that we’ve been calling on the government to implement for years now,” Walsh said. “[The] budget was great news for students in the province.”
CFS-national chairperson Jessica McCormick said the newly expanded needs-based grants system in Newfoundland and Labrador is important to students across the country.
“I’m hoping now that other provinces will see that this isn’t just something that students think is a good idea, it’s something that provincial governments will benefit from as well,” McCormick said.
She said while some provinces such as Ontario and Nova Scotia have made modest improvements in post-secondary education investments, others, like British Columbia, do not offer needs-based student grants at all.
She said she hopes the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s recent education investments bolster CFS lobbying work in other parts of Canada.
“We’re not looking for drastic changes over night, we’re looking for at least steps in the right direction and that doesn’t mean a massive investment right away,” McCormick said.
“That could mean small expansions of grants programs year by year. Those are the types of moves we would like to see in other provinces,” she said.
