The Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Kingston is investigating how recent changes to Ontario Student Assisted Program (OSAP) funding is impacting students in the Kingston community.
Representatives from OPIRG, Claire Genest, MA ’21, a research assistant focused on environmental sustainability at Queen’s, and Mathura Manoranjan, HealthSci ’28, are gathering student opinions on the reduction of OSAP grants and increase in loans. Responses are being collected through an online survey, and participants are also able to volunteer for interviews or focus groups.
In a statement to The Journal, Genest and Manoranjan said the early responses of the survey show clear patterns of student concerns. It shows that trust in OSAP is low, worry is high, and paying for rent is a considerable challenge. Many respondents reported working more job hours, reducing their course load, or changing programs as a solution to minimize costs.
Half of the respondents so far have said the debt would minimize their career choices in the future. Low-income students and caregiver respondents report the most concern, whereas higher income students show less worry.
READ MORE: Students raise concerns as new OSAP framework takes effect
In an interview with The Journal, OPIRG Kingston Coordinator Aaron McGaw said the study was launched because of concern surrounding how OSAP changes are increasing student debt and discouraging some students from pursuing post-secondary education altogether.
“At the most basic level, we’re concerned that [it] will have negative consequences for students,” McGaw said.
He said the survey aims to understand what students in the community are directly experiencing, what their attitudes are, and how OPIRG or students themselves can offer proper support.
“OPIRG isn’t just asking whether students are upset,” Genest and Manoranjan said. “We’re building a Kingston-specific record of how these changes affect current students’ ability to stay in school and future students’ ability to choose post-secondary education at all.”
OPIRG member Marion Gonsalves, a Health Sciences reference assistant at Queen’s, told The Journal she is concerned that eligibility requirements for other student financial aid resources are not going to be updated to reflect the OSAP changes.
Gonsalves specifically mentioned the Queen’s Work Study Program, as eligibility for the program requires applicants to be receiving at least $5,000 in government student financial assistance to qualify. She is worried that programs will continue to use financial assistance funding to measure financial need without accounting for the changes to OSAP, effectively reducing eligibility.
“Support services are not reaching people,” Genest and Manoranjan said. “Those who contacted financial aid mostly found it unhelpful, and some don’t know who to contact at all.”
The student researchers said these preliminary findings are from an ongoing survey, and the sample does disproportionately represent marginalized students. The current results do not represent Queen’s as a whole.
Any additional advocacy or action will depend on the overall responses of the survey, according to McGaw.
Gonsalves and McGaw encourage students to participate in OPIRG’s OSAP study to hear feedback from more Queen’s students. OPIRG Kingston plans to publish the report in the winter semester once the study is completed in December.
Tags
2026 OSAP Changes, OPIRG, survey
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