Ford Government and Students Aids Essay Example

Student financial aid is a form of monetary assistance often given to students to help them finance their higher education. Student financial aid may take various forms, for example, grants, scholarship, work-study programs, and student loans. As such each of these modes of financial aid often has its advantages and disadvantages.

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Most countries all over the world provide some financial aid to their students to help them further their education. In other countries that provide education to all its students at an insignificant cost, financial aid may have a tertiary connection to education statuses. For instance, in Belgium, there exist no student loans, and the only form of financial aid provided is given to students who originate from low-income families. These categories of students only take a very small proportion of the entire student population in the country (Johnstone Marcucci, 2007). This paper, therefore, seeks to explain why the ford government recently cut students aids.

Recently, the Ontario government decided to cut fees in all of Ontario's universities and colleges by 10%. Additionally, it made it more difficult for students to qualify for financial assistance that would help them in advancing their education by cutting the financial aid program to the level where it was before the Wayne government came into power, back in 2016. This has affected the grants provided to students via the financial aid system in the county. Additionally, the government has made it even more difficult for students from lower-income families by doing away with free tuition.

Furthermore, students in Ontario colleges and universities will receive more of financial aid in loans to finance their education, and less in non-repayable scholarships. This has become even harder for the students as they will have a shorter interest-free period for repaying their loans as compared to the long six months grace period that students previously had before commencing on loan repayment.

This came as a shock to both the students and the university as they will all suffer from the decisions made by the ford government. As for the universities, the government does not plan on compensating them for the $440 million that will be lost once the free tuition act takes effect. Also, the quality of education offered in colleges and universities in Ontario is expected to deteriorate. On the other hand, the students will have to deal with this issue by paying up more debt upon their graduation and having to pay it much faster to avoid accumulation of the interest rates.

It gets worse because Ontario colleges and universities have been receiving approximately $2000 less for every student in terms of financial aid from the government as compared to other provinces in the country. As such, these universities have been categorized among those with the lowest amount of individual student funding within Canada and thus revenues that are obtained from tuition paid by the students, as well as operating financial aids, have been stagnant since 2010. This then means that the universities will have much larger classes with more students and lesser professors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, therefore, the Ford government has made it much harder for both the universities and students in Ontario by reducing scholarships/grants provided to the students and instead increasing loans and reducing the grace period offered to the student for repayment upon their graduation.

Reference

Johnstone, D. B., & Marcucci, P. N. (2007). Worldwide trends in higher education finance: Cost-sharing, student loans, and the support of academic research. Commissioned paper V. Lynn Meek and Dianne Davies, 81.