Deputy Premier Deb Matthews discusses changes
Over the course of 2016, the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) has been changed considerably. In March, the Ontario government announced the Ontario Student Grant (OSG), which would provide free tuition to students who come from homes that make under $50,000 per year—though students would still have to pay all auxiliary fees that can come from being a college or university student.
While OSAP has not changed dramatically for students who do not qualify for OSG, there have still been changes to the structure of OSAP. In an interview with The Ontarion, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews discussed the changes to the OSAP system this year.
“I am enormously excited about the changes we’re making to OSAP, I really do think that it’s absolutely transformational. It means that we are eliminating the financial barriers for going to postsecondary, be it college or university. It is way more progressive, it’s generous, and it’s going to be a lot easier to access.”
For Matthews, the changes to OSAP are centered on making sure that all students are able to perform in postsecondary education to the best of their ability: “We’re all better when everyone is achieving their potential.”
For students hoping to receive OSAP from the Ontario government, there used to be different sets of criteria for different types of students. The current model of OSAP has changed this, by making a standardized system so that all students structure their OSAP in a similar way.
“There are several elements to the changes that we’re making. We’re simplifying the rules,” explained Matthews. “We used to ask students how much they think they’re going to earn over the next year, which is really very hard for students to be able to figure out, so we’re simplifying it by saying that we’re expecting a student contribution of $3,000 towards their education.”
Students looking to go back to school after five years out of high school are classified as mature students, which used to make their guidelines and amount of funding different from students who were pursuing postsecondary schooling immediately after high school. This is no longer the case, and mature students, along with married students, now have the same criteria for receiving OSAP as other students.
For Matthews, who was a mature student herself, “It’s all about access and simplification.”
“We don’t want students stressed when they’re students. We also don’t want them stressed out after they have graduated,” Matthews stated.
Students are now able to extend their moratorium on paying back their OSAP loan if they are earning less than $25,000 a year. When students do begin to pay back their OSAP loan, they only have to pay $7,400 per each year of schooling, regardless of the final amount that they may have spent out of their loan per academic year. While students can suspend their payments, the interest that would normally accumulate on their loan, causing the final amount of money paid overtime to increase, will still be in effect.
Photo by Mariah Bridgeman.