OSAP Express aims to cut the red tape
Carling Wright says without a student loan there is no way she’d be able to attend to university.
“I applied for OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) because I didn’t have enough money to pay for tuition, even after taking a year off to work,” the 21-year-old says. “This loan has made my life not only easier, but possible.”
In September, the Ontario government aimed to make the loan process easier for students like Wright by announcing OSAP Express, an initiative aimed at “cutting the red tape” and “streamlining the application process” to benefit students. The program promises students they’ll have to sign just one loan agreement that will carry them through the duration of their time in university or college. It will also speed up the enrolment process, and put an end to the inevitable lineups outside university financial aid offices every semester.
Besides this reorganization, students also get to enjoy the new 30per-cent-off Ontario tuition grant, which offers refunds of $770 to students in college diploma programs, and $1,680 to those in university degree programs.
Wright, who majors in English with a minor in geography at Queen’s University in Kingston, has spent $5,706 on tuition this year. Her books and supplies are $1,100 and her student fees are $992. Add it all up and Wright is spending nearly $8,000, and that’s just for schooling. On top of those costs, there are Wright’s living expenses: rent (she lives off-campus), meals, transportation costs, clothing and the occasional night out.
Will OSAP Express make a difference? Wright suspects it will help the admissions and financial offices at her school at least as much as it benefits her. But, she says, “It’s easier than the previous system.”
Chanelle Hosken, 19, a student at Fleming College in Peterborough, shares a similar experience with Wright and the more than 300,000 students who count on OSAP to attend post-secondary schools. The first-year travel and tourism student received a $10,859 loan from OSAP this year.
“I just wouldn’t have been able to make ends meet on my own, between groceries, rent, school supplies and tuition,” Hosken says. “With it, I know I can afford to live somewhere close to the school and have the basic necessities . . . to get the proper education to succeed.”
“I’m glad the government and institutions are realizing that students need this quicker system, and that I didn’t have to wait in line this year.”
CARLING WRIGHT
QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY STUDENT
Hosken, who receives her loan as a direct deposit broken up between the two semesters, says this new system is definitely more convenient. “For example,” says the firstyear student, “with the new set-up, I don’t have to apply again next year, which will save a lot of stress.”
If all goes according to plan, in two years, soon after Wright walks across the stage at convocation to receive her bachelor’s degree in ed- ucation, she’ll get her first teaching gig. Then she can start paying back the OSAP loans that she’s relied on to earn her teaching degree. “I’m glad the government and institutions are realizing that students need this quicker system, and that I didn’t have to wait in line this year,” Wright says. “Last year, I almost forgot to claim my OSAP because I was caught up in the whirlwind of classes.”