Ontario disqualifies students at 5 career colleges from receiving OSAP loans
The Ontario government has disqualified students at five private career colleges from receiving provincial student loans due to concerns over enrollment and admissions practices. This action follows a broader provincial policy to reduce OSAP spending and tighten oversight of career college financial aid.
Why it matters
The decision impacts student access to education and highlights ongoing tensions regarding the regulation and funding of private vocational institutions.
TORONTO — Ontario’s colleges and universities ministry has disqualified students at five private career colleges from receiving student assistance loans this coming year, after raising concerns with some of the schools’ course enrolment practices.
The move comes as career college students across the province are barred from accessing grants through the Ontario Student Assistance Program, part of a financial aid overhaul by the provincial government that also involves sharply reducing the amount of grants students at universities and publicly funded colleges can receive.
When Premier Doug Ford’s government made the announcement earlier this year, increasing funding to post-secondary institutions by $6.4 billion over four years while reducing OSAP spending, it cited “unsustainability” of the student financial aid program.
However, data obtained by The Canadian Press through a previous freedom-of-information request showed that nearly all of the recent growth in OSAP grants was among career college students.
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