Have you heard that the Government of Ontario is launching a new program to help undergraduate students offset some of the costs of tuition? The government expects that over 300,000 Ontario students will be eligible to receive it, so check out the information below.

What is the Ontario tuition grant?

The grant will be a non-repayable rebate to help full-time Ontario students offset tuition costs for up to 4 years. The grant will be worth 30 per cent of average tuition fees for first-entry non-professional programs and will increase each year as tuition rises. The grant will be worth $800 for university students and $365 for college students for this winter term.

The grant has now been launched and applications will be available until March 31st. You can apply for the winter term, as well as the spring/summer term if you will be in full-time studies. After this date, students will need to apply for the 2012-13 academic year.

You are eligible for the grant if you meet all of the following criteria:

• A Canadian Citizen, Permanent Resident or Protected Person;
• An Ontario resident (as of the start of your current study period, Ontario is the last province in which you, your spouse or parent resided for 12 consecutive months without being a full-time post-secondary student);
• A full-time student (minimum 60 per cent of a full course-load as defined by your university or college);
  • If you are a student with a disability, you are eligible if you are enrolled in minimum 40 per cent of a full course-load.
• Been out of high school for four years or less;
  • If you are a student with a disability, you are eligible if you are out of high school for six years or less.
• In satisfactory academic standing;
• Studying toward a college or undergraduate credential at an Ontario public university or college, including any first-entry professional program such as engineering, commerce or architecture, but excluding second-entry professional programs (medicine, law, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, veterinary, teacher training);
• Not currently restricted from receiving OSAP due to default, misrepresentation, fraud or second overpayment (students must clear restriction to access grant);
• From a family with a combined parental income before taxes in 2010 of less than $160,000.

The application process is (relatively) simple, so just follow these steps to receive $800 in non-repayable student assistance this year.

For those who have to apply for the grant:

The grant application is currently live at http://ontario.ca/30off

Before you begin your application, you will need:

• Your Social Insurance Number;
• Your parents' or guardians' SIN number(s) (if applicable);
• Line 150 of your parents' or guardians' tax form(s).

You can save your online application for up to 45 days. Applicants will be required to get their parents' or guardians' signature, as well as sign the form themselves. You or they will need to mail or fax in the completed form to the address below. You can also send the two forms in separately.

Student Financial Assistance Branch 

Fax:  (807) 343 7278

This year, the grants will be dispersed by cheque to eligible students within 4 to 6 weeks of having received your signed application. However, next year the grant will come directly off your tuition bill. We will post the details for next year's application on this website as soon as we have them.

If you have any other questions, feel free to call the government's toll-free hotline at 1-888-449-4478. The phone centre will be open from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm from Monday to Friday and 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Saturday, until the end of January.

Frequently Asked Questions:

The government has a comprehensive FAQ available here.

How will this grant affect my other financial assistance?

If you meet the above criteria, you will be eligible for the grant whether or not you receive OSAP. However, OSAP students should be aware of the interaction of this new program with the Ontario Access Grants.

If you currently receive the Ontario Access Grant in excess of $1,600 for this academic year, you will not receive additional funds from this program. Those eligible for the Ontario Access Grant at between 30% and 50% of your tuition, the new tuition grant will not come in addition to the funds you receive from these programs. If you currently receive between 25% and 30% of your tuition through the Ontario Access Grant, you will be eligible for a portion of the Ontario tuition grant to top-up your grant to the full 30%. That is the total you will be able to receive this term from the Ontario Access Grant and the Ontario tuition grant combined is $800.

Because this is a new grant and not an outright tuition reduction, the grant should not impact your current eligibility for any tuition or education tax credits.

Additionally, if you currently receive a Textbook & Technology Grant, this will be the last year this grant is available. Starting September 2012, this program will be phased out in order to help fund the new tuition grant program. In addition, the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top scholarships are being phased out, but current recipients will continue to receive funds for the remainder of their degree programs, providing they continue to meet the academic requirements of the scholarship. However, no new applications for the scholarships will be accepted.

What will happen with tuition fees?

Those students eligible for the new grant will see a reduction in their fees. However, tuition fees will continue to increase thereafter, as it will for students ineligible for the grant. The government has announced its intention to continue regulating fee increases to no more than 5% annually, as it does now, but has not publically declared the percentage increase that will be allowed.

OUSA's position is that if tuition increases must continue, these increases should not exceed the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). We will be continuing to advocate for a reduction in tuition increases in light of this new grant program.

How is the government paying for this?

This program is expected to cost approximately $420 million upon full implementation. OUSA was disappointed to see that part of this cost is being recovered by the elimination of three other student aid programs:

• the Ontario Trust for Student Support (a $25 million fund that matched donated institutional scholarships and bursaries)
• the Textbook and Technology Grant (a $39 million program that provided $150 each year in non-repayable assistance to all OSAP recipients)
• the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarship (a $35 million scholarship program with 15,000 recipients)

In addition, $100 million is expected to be recovered by providing fewer provincial grants and loans as a result of the new program's interaction with existing grant and debt relief.

 

"Targeted grants that reduce students' up-front costs have been a top priority for OUSA in its work with the government, and we are extremely pleased to see the government come through with the one of the largest investments in grants in the province's history," said Sean Madden, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA).

The new program launched today will be available to full-time domestic Ontario undergraduate and college students out of high school for four years or less with combined parental incomes of less than $160,000. For this winter term, eligible undergraduates will receive $800. Going forward, the grant will be tied each year to 30% of the average fees for first-entry non-professional students. Unlike other grant programs, students will not need to take out a student loan to access the new grant. The government also announced the phasing out of three other financial assistance programs: the Ontario Trust for Student Support; the Textbook and Technology Grant; and the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarship.

"It's unfortunate to see that the new program is being paid for in part by the cancelling of student aid programs and offsets in student support elsewhere. However, OUSA is pleased to see that its recommendation to extend eligibility for students with disabilities has been welcomed by the government," continued Madden. "We are hoping to find ways moving forward to strengthen the program and to help other high-need students, such as mature Aboriginal students and older students with children."

"This government understands that the path to prosperity starts by putting students first. We look forward to working with them on the next important step: developing a new tuition framework for September that sustains the value of this investment and is fair, predictable and affordable," said Sam Andrey, Executive Director of OUSA.

When a student is suffering from mental illness, his or her struggle affects all students. Often our friends and classmates don't turn up to class the next day, don't hand in an assignment, and/or become absent from our lives.

Over the last several years, students have witnessed that mental health problems are becoming more prevalent on Ontario's university campuses. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, mental illness affects one in five Canadians; this number is even higher among post-secondary students, where close to one-third of students experience elevated psychological stress. The most recent survey of Ontario universities found that 29 per cent of students reported being unable to function due to depression; 9.4 per cent of students suffered from anxiety disorders; and 6.1 per cent of students seriously considered suicide.

There are a number of reasons why university students experience mental health issues at a higher rate than other demographics, including:

• The typical age of onset of many disorders is 18 to 24, meaning individuals often have their first encounter with mental health issues while in university.
• Many students at university or college are living away from home for the first time in their lives, at a distance from familial networks and social-support programs.
• Universities are demanding, competitive, and high-stress environments, which can trigger anxiety and depression-related illness.
• Many university students are at the age where they are coping with transitional life experiences, including their first experiences with alcohol and drugs, their first romantic relationship, and the first death of a close relative.

Given increasing mental health awareness, it is important for university campuses to have accessible mental health services. OUSA's recent student survey found that approximately 50 per cent of students use campus mental health services at some point during their studies. Increased demand has strained the existing capacity of counseling services at many of Ontario's institutions and led to progressively longer wait times for treatment. An inability to promptly access mental health services can lead to an amplification of existing problems, which ultimately has devastating consequences on a personal, academic, and societal level, while driving up system-wide health costs.

Universities and government must work together to tackle this challenge. A positive step, the Ontario government has committed to adding additional mental health workers to college and university campuses through its Open Minds, Healthy Minds youth mental health strategy. Many universities are also instituting fall semester reading weeks, in addition to training professors and other support workers who are in constant contact with students. Additionally, mental health centres typically engage in preventative health promotion and anti-stigma education.

These steps are important, but more must be done system-wide. For example, many students suffering with mental illness reduce their course loads to part-time status. Unfortunately, students must then begin repaying their student loans, adding stress to an otherwise fragile situation. Extending interest relief would be a relatively low-cost initiative that could go a long way.

Mental health issues are often complex, meaning that they require complex solutions. Direct support and intervention must be provided by high-quality services, the student experience must be reformed to reduce undue stress on those who are in difficult situations, and attitudes must change to reduce stigma associated with mental illness. Universities and students are already pursuing these goals; it's time that the Ontario government equips universities and its students with the tools needed to fight the issue of mental illness more rigorously.

-Sean Madden
OUSA President

After a relaxing break, January has been off to a whirlwind of a start. The highlight was certainly Thursday's announcement of the new Ontario tuition grant. I won't rehash the details or our position on the program again, but I want to thank all of the politicians, student leaders, civil servants and financial aid administrators who have worked tirelessly to make sure students would receive relief for January. Your work to take this significant step forward did not go unnoticed.

With the grant's initial rollout behind us, attention now turns to a number of other pressing matters, chief among them: the new tuition framework for September. We have had dozens of meetings to talk about the changes we'd like to see to the framework and the tuition grant, and we will be redoubling these efforts in the coming months. Watch for our submission on the framework in the next month or so.

Two conferences are on the docket for January: our faculty partners' conference on student success, and a conference on student pathways and credit transfer. Advocacy efforts will also continue on student mental health, online learning, satellite campuses and ancillary fees. Until next time!

The eggnog is all gone, the Christmas tree is put away and the holiday sweaters are safely stowed at the bottom of the closet for another year. None of this is sad however, due largely to the fact that we're back to work on a set of new policy priorities for the new year. The top-of-mind topics currently are cost-effective ways to reform higher education and improve quality. A number of interesting proposals have been put forward, including more open credit transfer pathways, highly structured three-year degrees, more refined accountability processes and changes to the funding formula. With our research on rising costs and our system growth policy completed, I'm excited to approach this discussion from a student perspective.

Thanks to some hard work over the break by Abacus Data, we are currently going through the first results of the Ontario Post-Secondary Student Survey. With close to 8,000 responses across eight campuses, there is an unbelievable amount of data to go through. It's exciting work however, and we'll be sharing it with you as the New Year unfolds.

And of course, our ongoing work on new policy papers continues. Student Health, Credit Transfer, Rural and Northern Students and Mature Students are the topics for the rapidly approaching Spring General Assembly.

Happy New Year! With the Spring General Assembly just two short months away, work on the four policy papers has shifted into high gear. I have been actively involved in the research and planning process for the Mature Students and Rural and Northern papers. I have also been coordinating a small army of enthusiastic volunteers to work on our Student Health paper. The student interest in this topic highlights the salience of health issues on university campuses. Preliminary results from our Ontario Student Survey indicate that 40 per cent of students have used campus mental health services and a whopping 70 per cent of students have used campus medical services by their fourth year of studies. We are also in discussions on hosting a one day conference on student health in mid-May. Stay tuned for further details.