No student should start their degree with the promise of grant funding only to have it restructured as a loan.
On Feb. 12, the provincial government announced it would be lifting the tuition freeze and allocating $6.4 billion in extra funding towards universities. While lifting the tuition freeze was necessary to support universities struggling financially, it came with a reduction in grants available through the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). Considering university is likely to become more expensive without the tuition freeze, reworking OSAP risks making a university education elitist and increasingly inaccessible to lower-income students.
OSAP already isn’t sufficient enough to cover the cost of university education, and is now being cut even more.
Even if the current structure of OSAP, which can cover up to 85 per cent of a student’s funding in the form of grants, is unsustainable, it should be changed incrementally instead of all at once. Compared to other provinces’ financial assistance programs, such as StudentAid BC and Alberta Student Aid, the current version of OSAP has relatively more money available in the form of grants. However, any changes to stay aligned with other provinces should be introduced slowly, ensuring students have time to adjust and make the necessary financial arrangements.
Cutting OSAP at the same time as lifting the tuition freeze positions universities to become even more expensive and inaccessible. With less financial security in university, students from lower-income may choose not to attend, or else will pick programs more likely to have a return on their investment instead of degrees that some might believe yield lower wages, such as the arts.
At a time when arts programs are being cut across the province, it’s increasingly important to encourage students to pursue an education they’re passionate about, not just what’s available to them. An education in the arts fosters a more critical and observant voting body, something Ontario needs, as Premier Doug Ford prepares to run for his fourth consecutive term.
At a February news conference in response to questions about the OSAP cuts, Ford replied that students were “picking basket-weaving courses, and there’s not too many baskets being sold out there.” He continued that more students should go into healthcare or trades, explicitly undermining the importance of the arts and an arts education in Ontario.
Ford’s comments, and failure to expand OSAP, begs the question of what he does want to allocate funding towards. The Ontario Nurses Association have claimed Ford’s government “starves” public healthcare, and critics have maintained that even with the $6.4 billion infusion, post-secondary education in Ontario is still severely underfunded. Meanwhile, the Ford government is funding a $500 million spa in the West Island of Ontario Place.
The discrepancies in Ford’s funding are precisely why an education that teaches critical thinking is so valuable.
Education has an important role in Ontario’s history. Institutions like Queen’s were among the first universities in North America and have been an important part of upholding education and critical thought ever since. This rich history is exactly what’s at stake when education is only accessible to a select few who can afford it.
Though the cuts have just been announced, Queen’s administration should take matters into their own hands and increase grants and bursaries. With the newly available funding, it’s important that individual institutions take on the responsibility of ensuring lower income students can still access an education. That said, universities shouldn’t be held solely responsible for the accessibility of education in the absence of provincial funding.
Overall, Ontario students deserve a better system of financial assistance. If tuition is going to be unfrozen, it should come with the expansion of financial aid, not its relegation.
Tags
Grants, Loan, OSAP, Student aid
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