Students beginning college or university in Ontario this fall are entering a substantially different financial-aid system—one that may provide funding today but leave them owing considerably more after graduation.
For programs beginning on or after August 1, the Ford government has sharply reduced the amount of provincial student assistance that can be delivered as non-repayable grants. Under the new framework, grants can account for no more than 25 per cent of applicable provincial OSAP assistance, with at least 75 per cent delivered as loans. Students enrolled in private career colleges will receive their provincial assistance entirely as loans.
The changes do not necessarily mean every student’s total OSAP offer will decline. In some cases, approximately the same amount may be offered but with thousands of dollars moved from the grant column to the loan column.
That distinction is central to understanding the policy. A grant reduces the cost of attending school. A loan postpones that cost—and, on the Ontario portion, eventually adds interest.
For students whose parents can pay their tuition, the change may have little direct effect. For students from working-class households, single-parent families and homes without substantial savings, it can mean beginning adult life with a larger claim against their future income.
The government describes the overhaul as necessary to make OSAP sustainable. But its decision to increase institutional funding while reducing grant-based support reveals where students rank within that sustainability plan: colleges and universities receive additional public funding, while financially vulnerable students are expected to assume more private debt.
What exactly changed?
The February 12 announcement was part of a larger postsecondary package that included a new institutional funding model, permission for tuition increases and changes to student assistance.
According to the province, the plan will provide an additional $6.4 billion to Ontario’s postsecondary sector over four years and increase annual operating funding to $7 billion. The government says base funding per full-time student will rise by six per cent, with a 30-per-cent increase for part-time college students.
Beginning this fall, however:
- Provincial grants are restricted to a maximum share of the affected OSAP package, with a larger proportion provided as repayable loans.
- Students attending Ontario public colleges and universities, public institutions elsewhere in Canada and eligible private Ontario institutions will receive more of their provincial aid as loans.
- Students attending private career colleges will receive all provincial OSAP assistance as loans.
- Public colleges and universities may raise domestic tuition by as much as two per cent annually for three years. After that, increases may continue at up to two per cent or the three-year average inflation rate, whichever is lower.
Ontario says the average tuition change is equivalent to approximately 18 cents per day for a college student and 47 cents per day for a university student. Expressing an annual tuition increase in daily terms makes it sound modest, but the amount compounds across a multi-year program and arrives at the same time as grant assistance is being replaced with debt.
The government has promised an enhanced Student Access Guarantee, under which publicly assisted institutions provide additional aid when OSAP does not cover tuition, books and mandatory fees for qualifying low-income students. Negotiations over the enhanced guarantee were part of the provincial announcement.
That protection matters, but it is not equivalent to restoring the grants being removed. Institutional bursaries can have their own eligibility requirements, may not cover rent or food and can require students to navigate another application process. The guarantee also does not turn an OSAP loan back into a grant.
The province’s official OSAP information page confirms that the new rules affect the provincial portion of assistance. Federal grants and loans continue to be calculated under federal rules.
The most important fact: OSAP is one application, but two governments are involved
Students commonly refer to their entire aid package as “OSAP,” but the assistance displayed in an OSAP assessment can include both federal and Ontario funding.
Doug Ford’s government cannot eliminate or reduce the Canada Student Grant through a provincial announcement. Ottawa has extended its temporary 40-per-cent increase in federal student grants and loan limits through the 2026–27 academic year. The maximum Canada Student Grant for a qualifying full-time student remains $4,200, while the federal loan limit remains $300 per week of study, according to the federal government’s March announcement.
Ontario’s website lists additional federal assistance that may raise the total grant amount in particular circumstances, including disability and dependent-related grants. A student’s final combination will depend on income, family size, tuition, living arrangements, disability status and other factors.
This means the headline “25 per cent grants and 75 per cent loans” should not be applied mechanically to every dollar appearing in every student’s account. The precise result must be determined through the 2026–27 OSAP application.
The direction of the change, however, is unambiguous: Ontario is making provincial aid substantially more debt-dependent.
How much assistance can students receive?
For 2026–27, Ontario lists a weekly maximum of $530 for a single full-time student without dependants attending an Ontario public institution, up slightly from $525 last year. The maximum for a married student, common-law student or sole-support parent is $875 per week, up from $865.
Those are ceilings, not guaranteed awards. OSAP calculates entitlement using educational costs, income, family income, family size, assets, dependants and living arrangements.
The province also expects most full-time students to make a $3,600 contribution toward their education in 2026–27. That contribution can be waived in certain circumstances, including for some Indigenous students, students with children and young people receiving support through a children’s aid society.
The slight increase in maximum weekly assistance does not offset the central problem created by the new system. A student can technically receive enough money to enter school while being left in a much worse financial position after leaving it.
That is the political usefulness of loans: they allow a government to say access has been preserved because money remains available. But access financed through escalating debt is not the same as affordable education.
Why the policy disproportionately affects working-class students
Families with substantial savings can respond to higher education costs by drawing from an RESP, investment account or household income. Families living paycheque to paycheque generally cannot.
For them, the choices are narrower: borrow more, work longer hours during school, choose a less expensive program, remain at home, delay enrolment or abandon postsecondary plans altogether.
This makes the grant-to-loan conversion regressive in its practical effect. The formal rules may apply across the system, but only students with financial need must rely heavily on OSAP. The students most exposed to the change are therefore the people least able to absorb it.
A student whose family can write a tuition cheque receives a debt-free head start. A student from a low- or modest-income household can receive the same education while emerging with years of repayment obligations. Reducing grants widens that difference.
Loans may also influence decisions after graduation. Larger balances can make it harder to save for housing, start a business, pursue lower-paid public-interest work or manage periods of unemployment. Those consequences are not proof that every borrower will experience financial distress, but they demonstrate why replacing grants with loans is not an administratively neutral change.
The burden is compounded by Ontario’s interest policy. The federal government stopped charging interest on Canada Student Loans in 2023. Ontario continues charging interest on the provincial portion at the prime rate plus one percentage point.
Students have six months after leaving full-time studies before payments are required, but interest continues accumulating on the Ontario portion during that period. The province explains those terms on its OSAP repayment page.
Ontario is therefore not merely shifting assistance from grants to debt. It is shifting students toward a category of debt on which the province still charges interest.
The government’s defence
The Ford government says its postsecondary reforms are necessary to stabilize colleges and universities following years of financial pressure and a steep decline in international enrolment associated with federal restrictions.
Postsecondary Minister Nolan Quinn said the package would ensure the sector could continue training workers for in-demand careers while keeping education accessible. The province also argues that the new grant-and-loan balance will bring Ontario more closely in line with other jurisdictions and preserve OSAP for future generations.
There is a legitimate policy problem behind the announcement. Ontario institutions have faced serious financial instability, and the international-student model used by some colleges was not sustainable. International enrolment and its associated tuition revenue fell sharply after Ottawa restricted study permits.
The government’s $6.4-billion commitment is therefore significant. It should not be dismissed simply because the same package contains harmful student-aid changes.
But the existence of a real institutional funding crisis does not explain why aid-dependent students should carry a larger debt burden to address it.
Ontario had other choices. It could have funded institutions while maintaining need-based grants. It could have eliminated interest on provincial student loans. It could have targeted questionable private career-college practices without reducing grants for students attending public universities and colleges.
Instead, the province chose to combine higher institutional funding, permitted tuition increases and fewer provincial grants.
That combination undermines the claim that students were placed first.
Ford’s earlier OSAP changes established the direction
The 2026 overhaul is not the Ford government’s first reduction in grant-based student assistance.
In 2019, the government narrowed eligibility for the Ontario Student Grant, increased the proportion of aid delivered through loans and extended the period during which parental income could be considered in the provincial assessment of a dependent student.
Ontario also ended the interest-free provincial grace period. Graduates still received six months before payments began, but interest started accumulating immediately on the Ontario portion.
The government paired those changes with a 10-per-cent domestic tuition reduction and a subsequent tuition freeze. That freeze offered real savings, including to students who did not receive OSAP. But it did not compensate all low-income students for the loss of grant assistance, because tuition reductions and targeted grants perform different functions.
A tuition reduction benefits every eligible domestic student. A need-based grant directs more assistance toward students who cannot otherwise afford to attend.
The 2026 package removes even that policy balance. Tuition can rise again while provincial grants are further restricted.
A funding problem created over years is now being charged to students
Ontario’s postsecondary institutions did not become financially unstable overnight.
The province’s own Financial Accountability Office reported that in 2022–23 Ontario provided the lowest operating funding per full-time-equivalent domestic college student among the provinces—$10,910, approximately $5,093 below the national average. Provincial operating funding for universities was $8,886 per full-time-equivalent domestic student in 2024–25, according to the FAO’s postsecondary spending review.
That history matters because it changes the interpretation of the current policy.
The government is presenting additional institutional funding as a rescue from unprecedented pressures. Federal limits on international students undoubtedly intensified those pressures, but Ontario entered the crisis after years of unusually low domestic per-student funding.
Students are now being asked to accept more debt as part of the solution to a system the province itself allowed to become dependent on international tuition revenue.
That is difficult to describe as student-centred policy.
It is more accurately understood as a transfer of risk. The province is putting more money into institutions while transferring a greater portion of the cost of individual access onto students’ future earnings.
Does a loan preserve access?
In the narrowest sense, it can. A student who receives sufficient loan funding may still register for classes.
But treating borrowing capacity as proof of affordability conceals the difference between entering an institution and being able to attend without long-term financial damage.
Debt aversion is also not evenly distributed. Students from families accustomed to mortgages, investments and professional incomes may view a student loan as a manageable financial tool. Students who have watched parents struggle with rent, credit-card balances, precarious employment or collection agencies can rationally view debt as a threat.
A system that tells those students to borrow more may technically leave the door open while making it much harder to walk through.
That is why the fairness criticism is supported by the design of the policy itself. The people required to accept the new debt are not a random cross-section of Ontario. They are students whose income and family resources have already established financial need.
What students should do before classes begin
Students should not rely on last year’s OSAP amount when preparing a fall budget. Even if income and family circumstances have not changed, the grant-loan composition can be different.
Incoming and returning students should:
1. Complete the 2026–27 application immediately. Online applications for full- and part-time students are open. Ontario says processing generally takes four to six weeks after the application and required documents have been received.
2. Read the breakdown, not only the total. Compare Canada grants, Ontario grants and the integrated loan amount separately. A similar total can conceal a large increase in repayable debt.
3. Check the school’s bursary and Student Access Guarantee process. Public institutions may provide additional assistance where OSAP does not cover tuition, books and mandatory fees. Students should ask whether an additional application is required and whether living costs are eligible.
4. Contact the financial-aid office if family circumstances have changed. Income loss, family breakdown, disability-related costs and unusual living expenses may support a reassessment or review.
5. Report changes promptly. A change in income, course load or enrolment can cause OSAP to reassess an award. In some circumstances, grants can be converted into loans.
6. Apply even if only grant assistance is wanted. Full- and part-time applicants can choose to take their grants while declining the loan. Ontario says that decision can generally be changed until 40 days before the end of the study period.
7. Know the formal deadlines. A full-time application must be submitted no later than 60 days before the end of the study period. Supporting documents and review requests are generally due 40 days before the study period ends. Those are final administrative deadlines, not sensible targets for someone who needs money when classes begin.
Students can review current maximums on Ontario’s 2026–27 aid page and submit an application through the OSAP portal.
The larger choice Ontario has made
The Ford government can fairly argue that it is making a major investment in postsecondary institutions. It can also point to restrained tuition increases, higher weekly aid ceilings, continued federal grants and the enhanced Student Access Guarantee.
Those facts belong in any balanced account.
They do not erase the distributional choice at the centre of the policy.
Ontario could have treated postsecondary education as a public investment financed broadly through government revenue. Instead, it has moved a greater share of the cost onto students who lack the family resources to pay upfront.
That is why the change is unfair to working-class students. It asks the people with the least accumulated wealth to finance education through more debt, while students born into financially secure households can avoid that debt entirely.
The policy does not eliminate access on paper. It makes access more expensive for the people who need public assistance most.
For a government that says it is protecting workers and building Ontario’s future workforce, that is a serious contradiction. Students are being told their education is essential to the province’s economy—but that they must personally assume more of the financial risk required to obtain it.
The Ford government is putting money into the postsecondary system. Its OSAP decision shows that this does not necessarily mean it is putting students first.