The Ontario government will be sending out an $800 tuition grant to eligible undergraduate students next semester, according to Carleton vice-president (finance and administration) Duncan Watt.
The grant, a campaign promise from the Ontario Liberal Party, is now being extended to professional programs like business and architecture, Watt said.
This is a change from the Liberal platform that originally only intended the grant for students in non-professional programs.
Watt was on a conference call with officials from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities last week to discuss the upcoming tuition grant.
To be eligible, students must be full-time undergraduates whose parents make less than $160,000 a year.
Graduate, part-time, out-of-province and international students are not eligible for the grant, Watt said.
Watt said officials he spoke to didn’t say how the ministry would determine which students were Ontario residents.
He said that eligible students will have to send a parental consent form to the ministry, so their parents’ income information can be accessed.
The ministry already has parental income information for students receiving OSAP aid.
The ministry should be releasing official rules for the grant before Christmas, Watt said.
The grant will be mailed as a cheque to eligible students next semester.
Representatives for the ministry could not be reached for comment.
Ontario currently has the highest undergraduate tuition fees in the country at $6,307 per year, according to Statistics Canada.