OTTAWA (CUP)—Almost half of university students under the age of 22 are not getting any financial support from their parents, which has big consequences for the financial aid they receive, especially in Ontario.
The results of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation study are significant because governments—especially Ontario’s—assume students are receiving parental support until the age of 22, and base their loans on those assumptions.
The study also found students are increasingly relying on credit cards to make ends meet—something that troubles Alex Usher, a senior policy and research officer at the foundation.
“The credit card numbers show that the problem with students is not debt aversion, but poverty aversion,” he said. “I don’t know how if you’re getting student loans and your parents are not contributing you can survive.”
The study of more than 1,500 students found four out of 10 have accumulated debt on their credit cards, with 24 percent of those carrying credit card debt up to $500, and 19 percent carrying credit card debts of over $2,500.
What’s more, the study also found the vast majority of students do not earn enough in the summer to pay for education. Only 11 per cent of students did not work during the summer and only 17 per cent earned over $6,000.
“The report strongly reinforces the Canadian Federation of Students’ call for a national system of needs-based grants,” said Ian Boyko, national chair of the federation.
The CFS has been demanding Canada follow the lead of most other industrialized countries and have grants based on need for students to attend university.
“The fact remains that students need to borrow gobs and gobs of money to go to school in Canada,” said Boyko.
The foundation says that the report will not have an immediate impact on government decision-making but could influence it over the long term.
