Changes to Ontario's Student Assistance Program, known as OSAP, have taken effect as of August, and the first offers and estimates for the upcoming school year are now rolling in. Many students say they have been taken aback by the changes, which sharply reduce the share of their aid delivered as grants and push more of the cost onto loans that must eventually be repaid.
The scale of the shift is significant. The previous grant maximum for low-income students was 85 percent, and that has now been cut to just 25 percent. As a result, more of the funding students receive will be based on loans rather than grants, a change that stands to reshape how young people finance their education across the province.
Omar Nusir, a third-year medical science student at Western University, said he received about 4,800 dollars in grants this year, roughly a 30 percent drop from the more than 6,500 dollars he was granted last year. He noted that this year the majority of his OSAP grants were paid by the federal government rather than the province, and said he was shocked by how much the provincial grant had shrunk.
For some students, the change has erased grants almost entirely. A second-year economics and public policy student at the University of Toronto said that last year she received a combination of loans and grants, but this year her aid is made up of 100 percent loans. She said the new math forces students to be far more meticulous and cautious about their spending and to think twice about the decisions they make.
The concern extends beyond a single year of study. Some students said they are worried not only about their undergraduate degrees but also about the future burden of fees for specialized post-graduate programs. One student aiming for law school said knowing that hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt could be waiting creates a harsher barrier for those pursuing their educational dreams.
Adding to the pressure, OSAP loans start accruing interest six months after graduation, meaning the debt begins to grow soon after students finish their studies. With offers and estimates for the coming school year still being sent out across the province, students said the shift could make some think twice about whether to apply to certain post-secondary programs at all.