OSAP changes disappoint students, concern advocates

The Ontario government on Feb. 12. announced major changes to the Ontario Students Assistance Program (OSAP), concerning Algonquin College students and student advocates.

Starting next fall, OSAP users will get a maximum 25 per cent of funding as grants and a minimum 75 per cent for loans. This new policy for the next academic year is a major change from the current formula of 85 per cent for grants and 15 per cent for loans.

The new formula means OSAP students will have to pay back more money. This is in addition to having the tuition freeze discontinued, allowing post-secondary institutions to raise tuition up to two per cent per year.

The province has said in a news release that the formula changes are to “strengthen the long term sustainability of OSAP and to bring it in line with other provinces.”

The Algonquin College community has many students who rely on OSAP, using it as a crucial way to access post-secondary opportunities they could otherwise not afford. With rising unemployment, youth are looking for ways to make them more competitive for the job market.

Alyssa Barrett, an Algonquin College student, has enjoyed the benefits of OSAP throughout her post-secondary education.

“I rely on OSAP for probably the bulk of funding every year. It’s worked for me. It’s great,” said Barrett. “It’s really irritating to not have grants that I don’t have to pay back as an option.”

Barrett previously went to university before attending college and would like to go back to university after graduating from Algonquin. Less funding from OSAP grants and the removal of the tuition cap means she will be under harder circumstances at the end of her program.

“It really feels like they are setting us up for failure,” said Barrett. “You reduce the amount of grants that we get and then obviously colleges and universities are going to raise their tuition because they can, and they will. At the end of the day, they are businesses, so they will profit off of us.”

Other Algonquin College students who are eligible to get OSAP grants before the formula change are concerned about the impact to high-demand programs.

“I kind of think it’s disgusting,” said Jackson Bedard-McQuaig, an Algonquin College student. “They tell us to go into these programs. We need more technicians, we need more engineers, we need more nurses. We need all this, and you’re not giving the opportunity to do these things?”

Bedard-McQuaig has heard negative opinions from his fellow students about the government’s OSAP announcement.

“It’s been the talk of the town,” said Bedard-McQuaig. “I don’t think I have heard a single person be in support of this decision.”

Ontario already has one of the largest post-secondary sectors in the country and some of the highest tuition fees. In a written statement, Cyrielle Ngeleka, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, said other provinces have maintained stronger grant-based assistance and lower tuition.

“Ontario pairing a 2 per cent increase for the next three years and a shift in the OSAP structure with no new money invested in the program translates to students in the province graduating with more debt than their counterparts across the country,” said Ngeleka. “The province ranks last for per-student public funding.”

Ngeleka is concerned about students’ access to post secondary education being tied to their ability to pay off school debt.

“Let’s make it clear: that is not students’ burden to carry — it is the government’s responsibility. Yet Ontario has shown as clear as day their deprioritizing of the post-secondary sector, normalizing the currency of debt as the price of an education,” said Ngeleka.

Bedard-McQuaig would like to see more funds put towards post-secondary education.

“I’m not the one who knows the system, they do, but you don’t need to be able to make a film to say that a film is bad,” said Bedard-McQuaig.