Ontario Government Slashes the Tuition Fees by 10%

If you study or plan on studying in Ontario, you will soon be benefiting from the slash of tuition fees in the province. Currently, the tuition fee framework caps the increase for most programs at 3%. This expired at the end of the academic year. The slashing of tuition fees by 10% starts in the 2019-2020 academic year. The decreased tuition fees will then be frozen in the subsequent academic years.

The cutting of the tuition fees is for college and university students. Thanks to the reduction, the government projects that the average university arts and science undergraduate will save at least $660 whereas the average college student will save about $340.

The core operating grants to the post-secondary institutions are dependent on compliance with the new tuition framework. All in all, as you look for apartments near York University, it is good to note that the cut is not regulated and will not be included for International student tuition fees.

The reduction in tuition fees is not without a downside. The government has eliminated free tuition for low-income students. This has been done in an effort to trim the multibillion-dollar deficit. Despite the cutting of the tuition fees, the move is being slammed as harmful to the students it is purported to help.

The Ontario Student Assistance Plan (OSAP) grants have become quite unsustainable. According to the Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Merrlee Fullerton, the focus should have been refocusing the program so as to provide help to financially struggling students. She further added that the previous government believed in providing OSAP funding to some of the highest income earners in Ontario instead of focusing on offering grants to students who need it the most.

The previous Liberal government increased the grants and made it easy for low-income students to go to college or university free of tuition fees. The auditor general, however, found that the costs for the program went up by 25% and warned that this could spike to $2 billion every year by the 2020-2021 academic year. Tories are now in the process of trimming the deficit by pegging it at $14.5 billion. The financial accountability officer said the deficit is close to $12 billion.

Under the previous government, families that earned more than $175,000 qualified for some funding but the threshold has now been reduced to $140,000. For low-income students, they qualified for grants that were enough to cover their whole tuition. With the new changes, part of the funding the low-income students get will be a loan. The majority of the grants will be set aside for families that make below $50,000.

The cut in tuition fees by 10% is a great thing but not to all. The government says the move will benefit students in dire financial need. Students and critics, however, say the move is not meant to help needy students as it claims.

Fullerton later said that some fees will still remain mandatory such as the walk-safe programs, athletics & recreations, academic support, and health & counseling.

Apartments near York University

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