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Loyalist is top Ontario college for percentage of students receiving free tuition

Sam Marks (foreground) and other Loyalist College students joined their counterparts from across Ontario last week in a Toronto protest against the provincial government’s changes to OSAP. Photo by Liam Radford, QNet News

By Liam Radford [1]

BELLEVILLE – Seventy-three per cent of students at Loyalist College have their full tuition costs covered by grants from the Ontario Student Assistance Program [2] – the highest percentage of any college in Ontario.

The number comes from the CBC [3], which last week released Ontario-government data showing that across Ontario 40 per cent of full-time postsecondary students receive free tuition thanks to grants from OSAP. The Loyalist figure was confirmed Thursday by Laura Russell of Loyalist’s financial assistance office.

Until the changes to OSAP announced by Ontario’s Ford government last month, students from families who made less than $50,000 a year were eligible for free tuition, while those from families who made up to $86,000 a year could qualify for non-repayable grants from OSAP.

Alexis Calhoun, a student in the nursing program at Loyalist, says she would not have been able to attend college without her tuition being fully covered by OSAP. She also receives enough from the program to cover her living expenses.

“I receive about 15 grand, all included – that has tuition and everything included in it,” Calhoun told QNet News.

Calhoun, who moved to Belleville from her Toronto home to study at Loyalist, said her family is unable to support her financially, so she relies on OSAP.

Tayla Genereux, a culinary student at Loyalist who also receives full funding from OSAP, said that without it she would have been unable to afford school this year.

However, while she received $15,000 for 2018-19, Genereux said she won’t have to rely fully on OSAP next year because she’s now able to support herself.

According to the CBC’s data, 1,830 Loyalist students  – 73 per cent of total enrolment – are receiving free tuition. While the percentage was the highest among Ontario’s colleges, the actual number of students is lower than many of the other colleges with similar percentages. That’s because Loyalist is one of the smallest colleges in the province. Scarborough-based Centennial College had the second- highest percentage of students getting free tuition – 72 per cent – but that represents 7,080 students. George Brown College in Toronto has 11,398 students receiving free tuition, which is 68 per cent of its students. And Seneca, also in Toronto, has 10,930 students receiving free tuition – 65 per cent of the student body.

Last month the Ontario government announced that it will reduce the amount of OSAP money offered as non-repayable grants, and increase the amount that will come to students as loans that must be repaid. No student will now receive grants alone. As well, the six-month grace period after a student graduates during which no interest is charged on OSAP loans has been eliminated.

Last week, students from across the province, including a busload from Loyalist College, held a large demonstration in Toronto to protest the changes.