Pathways to universal access : Towards a more equitable post-secondary financial aid system in Canada

Finally, in light of the costs and challenges related to attending higher education, we will provide a detailed analysis as to the policy changes required in the areas of repayable and non-repayable aid, in order to make for a more affordable and accessible PSE system in Canada. [...] While a system purely consisting of grants would solve the issue of students owing debt to the federal portion of the program, and a needs-based system would be more progressive, the total disbursement for students to attend university would be significantly reduced. [...] With 41% of students projected to have unmet need as of 2015 according to CSLP actuarial reports, this could negatively impact their ability to attend a post-secondary institution.5 The following table depicts the current state of federal spending in PSE, as well as our proposed allo- cation of spending, based on the analysis of this paper and putting funds towards the most progressive expenditure [...] The goal of the recommendations provided throughout the paper is to provide guidance to reallocate public spending in PSE in order to improve the accessibility and affordability of PSE in Canada. [...] The amount of grants disbursed to Canadian students has increased significantly since 2006, with a total value increasing by over 4-fold – the average at the time was $1,622 given to 87,368 recipients, increasing to the present level of $1,947.37 given to 356,892 recipients as of 2012-2013.