Undergraduate students across Canada are shockingly ill-equipped and uninformed when it comes to navigating our financial aid system, says a report released today by a partnership of student alliances from across Canada. The report, entitled "The Illiteracy of the Literate:The Lack of Financial Aid Knowledge among Canadian University Students," is based on a survey of over 20,000 students, half of them from Ontario, and examines the financial aid literacy of borrowers and non-borrowers alike. Results indicate that 75% of students, including 54% of upper-year government loan recipients, failed the financial aid literacy test posed in the survey. Students most often cited parents and friends as their primary source of financial aid information, yet these students also had the lowest test scores.

"It is clear that thousands of Ontario students are unaware of the aid that is available and are unprepared to handle the significant debt they incur," said Meaghan Coker, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). "Our overcomplicated financial aid system is failing these students."

The report also describes a number of the consequences that stem from poor financial aid literacy. Roughly one in five students who identified as debt-averse were unaware that it was possible to receive a grant without taking out a loan. Of fifth-year students who thought they would not quality for a loan, 71% were unaware that their parental income would not be taken into account. Furthermore, 57% of government loan recipients risk paying hundreds of dollars in additional interest because they did not know that interest on their Canada Student Loan begins to accrue immediately upon graduation.

"We urge the government to incorporate comprehensive financial aid literacy into the high school curriculum to educate students on the financial aid available to them," said Alexi White, OUSA Executive Director. "No student should graduate from an Ontario high school without a firm understanding of the support available in pursuing higher education."

The Canadian Student Survey was a bilingual, multi-institutional survey conducted on university campuses across the country in the fall term of the 2009-10 academic year. It was commissioned by a partnership of student alliances across the country, including the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) and Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA).

 
After a week long Transition Conference, the new 2010-2011 Steering Committee took over the reins of OUSA, and elected its new executive.

OUSA would like to welcome these new Steering Committee members, and look forward to a new exciting year!

Click on the image to read their individual biographies on the OUSA website.

Student leaders from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) met with Premier Dalton McGuinty on Saturday to discuss a range of issues facing the post-secondary education system in Ontario. "The Premier remains committed to partnering with students to improve Ontario's post- secondary education system," said OUSA President Dan Moulton. "We look forward to working with the Premier to address our shared priorities of enhancing the quality of teaching, providing e-learning and international education opportunities, and strengthening accountability for public and student funding."

At the Premier's request, OUSA will be providing further input on a number of proposals related to system design that arose during the private meeting.

"The post-secondary sector and the Province as a whole are facing many challenges," added Moulton. "Students are committed to collaborating with the Premier, his staff and the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities to develop educated solutions that will build on the success of the government's historic Reaching Higher Plan."

While most classes have ended and students have started their summer jobs and vacations, OUSA is gearing up for a busy summer.

We have recently done an update/review of our www.ousa.ca website, and fixed some bugs and errors found there, as well as updated all of our issue briefings, research library, and policy papers.

Our Educated Solutions magazine is being prepared for a September release, and we are looking for contributors in the upcoming months. This issue will be featuring quality in post-secondary education is an overarching theme, but other material will be present as well. Last year we had faculty, students, administration and media contribute to the issue. If you are interested in contributing to Educated Solutions, please email me at alvin@ousa.on.ca.

We also launched our new twitter account ousa, which replaces our old account educatedsolns.

On the events and conferences front, our Student Roundtable Series is having its first discussion on June 22nd, and if you are interested in attending, click on the registration link HERE.

We are also looking forward to our Strategic Planning Conference in Collingwood, hiring our Campus Coordinators, and developing our Media Strategy for our fall campaigns and priorities.

So keep a look out for all things OUSA!

-Alvin Tedjo

The month of May was filled with primary and secondary research, advocacy, stakeholder relations, and our annual transition conference. Our summer researchers have done a great job updating our issue briefings and providing feedback to HEQCO on their research priorities, so Chris and Morgan have now started in on their big projects of the summer.

Chris has begun research to write a new paper on international students, including issues related to tuition, student services, financial aid, work rules, and UHIP. Morgan is already well on her way to updating our paper on early outreach programs and we are looking forward to sitting down with many of our community partners in the coming month to learn more about the current state of early outreach.

I have begun work on my major project of the summer: working on an environmental scan of financial aid in Canada with the Council of Ontario Universities and an update of our student financial assistance policy paper for Fall General Assembly. There have been a number of positive improvements to financial aid in Ontario as of late, and so I am looking forward to beginning the process of developing ideas for our next round of recommendations on financial aid.

I have also been working on OUSA's submission on the ideas proposed in HEQCO's new book Academic Transformation and started data analysis for OUSA's final report on the Ontario-specific Canadian Student Survey questions related to student priorities and student success. I participated in consultations with TD Economics prior to the release of their report on post-secondary education, and we also prepared a submission to the Ministry of Education encouraging the incorporation of student financial aid in the upcoming financial literacy curriculum. 

I will also soon be preparing for OUSA's first Student Roundtable Series on global alternative cost recovery models at the end of the month. The home office hasn't slowed down any since I last wrote, and I am looking forward to another busy month of research and policy ahead.
 
-Sam Andrey

While we've had some fantastic summer weather this month, the season has been anything but laid back so far. Between the sector talking very seriously about significant changes in system design, our upcoming roundtable on alternative cost-recovery, new reports from the Canada Student Survey coming forward and our continuing work on the policy priorities set for us by General Assembly, home office has been a frenzy of activity.
 
After spending some time reviewing HECQO's third annual review and research plan, Morgan and I have begun focusing in on preliminary research for OUSA's upcoming papers on early outreach and International Students. The former will be an evolution of our current policy on early outreach, which has become one of the key components of OUSA's access pillar. The paper on international students will be a new policy, which will have to be constructed from scratch. Currently we are hoping to discuss international student tuition, success, financial aid, health insurance, and employment issues.
 
For both these issue areas, Morgan and I are conducting environment scans so that Steering Committee has adequate information to have a proper discussion at the upcoming Strategic Planning conference. Currently this conference is less than a month away, so I should get back to work!

-Chris Martin & Morgan Campbell