The Ontario Liberal government is fulfilling a major campaign promise this month in handing down a 30 per cent tuition grant.
For those who are eligible, this year’s grant will amount to $800 for university students and $365 for college students. Those totals are expected to rise to $1,600 dollars and $700 respectively beginning in September 2012.
310,000 students qualify immediately for the grant. The number of recipients is expected to grow annually, says Glen Murray, Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities.
IAN MACK/THE VARSITY
The grant was introduced under a strict set of parameters. Qualified applicants must be in a program that can be applied to straight out of high school, must be studying full-time, must report gross family income of less than $160,000, and must be no more than four years — or six for students with disabilities — out of high school.
The limited number of eligible students has sparked criticism from organizations such as the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS).
“Despite Dalton McGuinty’s repeated promise to reduce tuition fees, his government is introducing a grant that will reach just over 300,000 of Ontario’s more than 900,000 students,” CFS Chairman Sandy Hudson says.
According to CFS estimates, the government could instead have slashed tuition fees by 13 per cent across the board, at the same annual cost of $420 million.
The Ontario Conservatives have also expressed their disappointment with the grant. They have argued that a government facing a $16 billion deficit should not be launching such an expensive program.
Addressing financial concerns, Murray explains that the new grant will be deducted from pre-existing funding mechanisms.
“The only negative is that we had to find the money within existing funding,” he said. “The only direct student aid program that’s gone is the technology and textbook grant which is about $150.”
There are also some out-of-high school scholarship programs that are being phased out — one of them being the Queen Elizabeth scholarship program.
“Anyone who has received it in the last year will see it to the end. It’s a multi-year scholarship and [past recipients] will continue to get it. We will just not be accepting any new applicants into the program after this year,” says Murray.
Students have taken to social media to post their opinions on the grant. Reactions range from praise and delight (“SO happy for the 30% Ontario Tuition Grant,”) to frustration (“whyyyyy do they keep e-mailing me about this Ontario tuition grant if I don’t even qualify.”).
For students already enrolled in the OSAP program, the 30 per cent tuition grants will be processed automatically. All other students can apply for this grant through a link on the OSAP website. The application is now open and the deadline is March 31.
The application process, Murray said, is a one-time deal.
“Once you’ve applied you’re basically doing a life-agreement, so the entire time that you’re in university or college this will apply and you’ll just have to do a short renewal form online each year,” he says. “This is permanent — as long you’re student you’ll never have to reapply.”
