Michael Gregory
Senior Reporter

The McGuinty government’s new tuition grant has deepened the pockets of many Ontario post-secondary students, but thousands of others are finding themselves left out by the fine print.

Implemented this month, the $430 million rebate plan gives $730 annually to college diploma and certificate students. University students can receive $1,600 back.

The government’s Ontario Student Assistance Program website lists eligibility requirements, which include:  full-time enrollment, that the student has applied directly from high school less than four years after graduation and that their parents’ income is less than $160,000.

Glen Murray, minister of training, colleges and universities, told the Et Cetera that the program was brought in to help the “middle-class and modest income” families with more than one child pursuing a post-secondary education. He said the response from the public has been encouraging.

“I’ve got parents who call and say… ‘this is the difference between us being able to keep three of our children in college or university,’” Murray said. “People are very excited about it: colleges and universities are really happy that their students are getting breaks but it’s not coming at their expense.”

During the fall election campaign, a campaign policy worker for education minister Laurel Broten from Etobicoke-Lakeshore, told the Et Cetera “five out of six students will get the grant.”

But now the government admits that 310,000 will be receiving their cheque: that’s roughly half of the province’s 600,000 students.

Another estimate by the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Student Federation, an organization that lobbies government, claims the number is even lower and “two-thirds of students in Ontario” will be excluded.

The CFS has now launched a campaign to amend portions of the tuition grant.

Ontario Chair Sandy Hudson said the government’s investment is a “good thing,” but the McGuinty Liberals have broken an election promise to students.

“There are much more efficient ways to spend this money and we’re upset about the broken promise of a 30 per cent tuition fee reduction,” Hudson said.

“Students shouldn’t be barred [from] a post-secondary education simply because their wallets aren’t fat enough,” she said.

To help fund the rebate, the government is cutting several other education grants. Among them are the Textbook and Technology Grant and the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarship, which awards scholarships for academic excellence.

Some students may actually be worse off because of the rebate. Hudson said the government is “cutting back other grants that would have given larger amounts of money to students who are in lower-income families in order to help fund this grant.”

Murray said the 8,000 QEII recipients have other funding options and the programs being reduced were “minor” and considered to be “temporary in the first place.”

“Anyone who’s losing funding, with very few exceptions, is being picked up by the much more generous and larger tuition grant program,” he said.

But while the new grant is available immediately, the programs on the budget chopping block may not be disappearing as quickly as was first thought.

Holsee Sahid, manager of Humber’s financial aid office said at least one would be phased out gradually in the years to come.

“If you’re a student who got the Aiming for the Top Scholarship this year and you have maintained your 80 per cent average, you will continue to get it for the next three years – you’re not going to be cut off,” said Sahid, adding that high school students entering post-secondary this semester do not qualify.

The Textbook and Technology Grant would likely be gone as of September 2012, she said.
According to statistics collected by Humber’s Financial Aid office, over 10,000 students received $81 million in funding from federal, provincial and grant sources during the fall 2011 semester.

The McGuinty government will now concentrate on improving funding and services for students exempt from the tuition grant, including Humber’s 57,000 part-time students.

“There are a number of people –mature students and part-time students— who don’t yet have beyond OSAP a more developed program for them and we’re going to work with that,” Murray said. “You’re going to be hearing a lot from our government over the next 12 months on more reforms that will make education more accessible for absolutely every student.”

Over 50,000 students have already applied for the grant based on statistics collected in mid-January.