Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is eliminating free tuition for students from low-income families while also cutting tuition fees.
The Tories say the Ontario Student Assistance Plan grants had become unsustainable and it was time to refocus it to provide help to students in the most financial need.

The government says most of the of grants will go to students whose families have an income of less than $50,000, but didn’t say what the cut off would be for a grant.

Canadore president George Burton says colleges will take a hit from lower tuition fees.
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“Probably $80 million across the sector. For us, it creates a challenge of a little over a million. We’re going to have to work with the government to address this,” he says.

Sarah McGowan speaks for the student union at Nipisisng. She says they’re still analyzing the overall impact of the announcement.

“We’re interested in seeing what the loss of the interest free grace period and the lowering of the minimum income to begin repayment to $25,000 will be like,” McGowan says.

In a release, Nipissing University says the financial impact of the tuition reduction is estimated to be approximately 4% of Nipissing University’s annual operating revenue.

The release says the university welcomes the announcement that the Government will administer a fund to help smaller Northern institutions adjust to the tuition reduction.

Burton doesn’t expect there to be a big impact on enrolment at Canadore with this announcement.

Filed under: Canadore College, Nipissing University, tuition