Are you swimming in student debt?
You aren’t alone.
If you feel overwhelmed by your mounting student debt load, don’t be quick to blame yourself. Many other students are facing the same burden. Tuition fees have been steadily rising - and so has student debt.
The average student today is paying more than twice as much as students did in 1990. In some programmes, fees can be as high as ,000 per year.
When many of today’s politicians were getting their diplomas and degrees, a university education only cost about 0. By working a full-time summer job for minimum wage, a young Stephen Harper would only have had to work for about 6 weeks to save enough to pay his fees for an entire year. Try doing that today!
As a result of government policies of high fees and high debt, students today are deeper in debt than they have ever been before. In fact, average student debt in Canada has more than doubled in the last 10 years and is now over ,000 for a four year programme. This is a consequence of skyrocketing tuition fees.
If you feel overwhelmed by your mounting student debt load, don’t be quick to blame yourself. Many other students are facing the same burden. Tuition fees have been steadily rising - and so has student debt.
The average student today is paying more than twice as much as students did in 1990. In some programmes, fees can be as high as ,000 per year.
When many of today’s politicians were getting their diplomas and degrees, a university education only cost about 0. By working a full-time summer job for minimum wage, a young Stephen Harper would only have had to work for about 6 weeks to save enough to pay his fees for an entire year. Try doing that today!
As a result of government policies of high fees and high debt, students today are deeper in debt than they have ever been before. In fact, average student debt in Canada has more than doubled in the last 10 years and is now over ,000 for a four year programme. This is a consequence of skyrocketing tuition fees.
Grants Not Loans
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that grants (not loans) are the way to promote access.
In the largest study of its kind, British researchers followed low-income students through the system and determined that the availability of grants was the primary factor in determining whether low-income students could finish their degrees. A similar study in the United States, entitled Access Denied, also found that access to grants was the determining factor on whether or not low- and middle-income students would enter the system and persist until graduation. In another UK study, researcher Stephen Machin tracked a decline in the participation rates of low-income students after the UK government abolished grants for living expenses. In the final year of the program, 13% of those in UK universities were from the lowest income strata. Six years after the grant was scrapped, only 7% came from the poorest British families.
In the largest study of its kind, British researchers followed low-income students through the system and determined that the availability of grants was the primary factor in determining whether low-income students could finish their degrees. A similar study in the United States, entitled Access Denied, also found that access to grants was the determining factor on whether or not low- and middle-income students would enter the system and persist until graduation. In another UK study, researcher Stephen Machin tracked a decline in the participation rates of low-income students after the UK government abolished grants for living expenses. In the final year of the program, 13% of those in UK universities were from the lowest income strata. Six years after the grant was scrapped, only 7% came from the poorest British families.
Income Contingent Student Loan Repayment Schemes (ICR)
Education Shouldn't Be a Debt Sentence!
According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the federal government is considering the implementation of income contingent student loan repayment.
Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) schemes are pitched as a flexible and fair student-aid plan that would allow student loan recipients to pay off their loans as their income allowed.
Even policy analysts involved in designing and administering ICR models concede this point. According to the federal government:
". . . ICR loans would solve the problem of university and college under-funding, by allowing institutions to increase tuition fees to cover a greater portion, or even all of its costs. Fees would be unregulated and institutions would charge whatever the market would bear. Needy students and those with cash flow problems would pay the increased fees with the help of ICR loans."
The Government of Australia describes its ICR in these terms: "The purpose...is to raise revenue from the recipients of higher education for return to the system as part of...funding of higher education; it is not a form of student assistance."
ICR = Wealthy Pay Less Than Poor
Graduates with lower levels of income would repay their loans over a longer period of time, while those in high-paying jobs could repay their loans quickly and pay less interest. Those who could afford to pay their tuition fees up front would avoid the high interest rate payment after graduation, and end up paying less for post-secondary education. For example, in Australia if a student can afford to pay their income contingent loan at the beginning of every academic year, they receive a 25% discount.
Lifelong Debt Sentence
ICR would disproportionately hurt women because it would take them, on average, considerably longer to pay back their interest-bearing loans. Because many women leave the workforce due to pregnancy and still earn less than men on average, repayment difficulties would be more pronounced. Under one model considered in Canada in 1994, 43% of women would not be capable of paying off their debt after 25 years of repayment.
Download some of the documents below for more information.
According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the federal government is considering the implementation of income contingent student loan repayment.
Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) schemes are pitched as a flexible and fair student-aid plan that would allow student loan recipients to pay off their loans as their income allowed.
Even policy analysts involved in designing and administering ICR models concede this point. According to the federal government:
". . . ICR loans would solve the problem of university and college under-funding, by allowing institutions to increase tuition fees to cover a greater portion, or even all of its costs. Fees would be unregulated and institutions would charge whatever the market would bear. Needy students and those with cash flow problems would pay the increased fees with the help of ICR loans."
The Government of Australia describes its ICR in these terms: "The purpose...is to raise revenue from the recipients of higher education for return to the system as part of...funding of higher education; it is not a form of student assistance."
ICR = Wealthy Pay Less Than Poor
Graduates with lower levels of income would repay their loans over a longer period of time, while those in high-paying jobs could repay their loans quickly and pay less interest. Those who could afford to pay their tuition fees up front would avoid the high interest rate payment after graduation, and end up paying less for post-secondary education. For example, in Australia if a student can afford to pay their income contingent loan at the beginning of every academic year, they receive a 25% discount.
Lifelong Debt Sentence
ICR would disproportionately hurt women because it would take them, on average, considerably longer to pay back their interest-bearing loans. Because many women leave the workforce due to pregnancy and still earn less than men on average, repayment difficulties would be more pronounced. Under one model considered in Canada in 1994, 43% of women would not be capable of paying off their debt after 25 years of repayment.
Download some of the documents below for more information.
ICR Fact Sheet
Click 'Download' below to view/download the ICR Fact Sheet.
ICR: Inequity and Injustice
Click 'Download' below to view/download the Canadian Federation of Students research on ICR.
Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)
RESP: A National System of Grants for the Wealthy.
Click 'Download' below to view/download our RESP Fact Sheet.
Click 'Download' below to view/download our RESP Fact Sheet.