By Sadie McInnes and Carolyn Turgeon, Associate News Editor
The reelected Liberal government is working to have their promised tuition cuts in place by January 2012.
The 30 per cent tuition grant would be for students who come from households earning less than $160,000.
“We are realizing that affordability is an important part of the access equation,” said Glen Murray, Toronto Centre MPP and Minister of Training, College and Universities.
The grant will save $1,600 for the families of dependent full-time university students and $750 for dependent full-time college students.
According to Liberal officials, the low-income eligibility means the grant would help five out of six—86 per cent—of students.
“This will mean a lot to the families in my constituency,” said Murray.
He said the government plans to administer the amounts annually but break them down by semester.
The Liberals estimate the cost of providing all 165,000 eligible students with the grant would cost about $450 million in total for the first four years.
The applications will be done online and will be kept very simple with only four questions involved.
“We’ve heard from a lot of associations to please keep it simple,” said Murray. “Students are very savvy and they will easily apply for it online.”
Those who are registered for OSAP will be automatically signed up with the addition of a simple one-page application.
At the moment, part-time students cannot be included in the program, but students who have graduated in the last four years will be eligible.
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