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McMaster Community Poverty Initiative (MCPI)

Faculty of Social Sciences

MCPI News: Changes to Tuition Funding in Ontario 2016: Addressing Student Poverty?

Reports from Statistics Canada on enrollment data continue to indicate that students from low income families are increasingly being shut out of Universities and Colleges because of rising costs. Only 10% of University enrollment comes from students in the bottom income quartile and almost 50% from students whose families are in the top income quartile.

Apr 01, 2016

Ontario continues to have the highest tuition rates in Canada and Ontario graduates are being saddled with an average of $28,000 in debt. In contrast to only a couple decades ago, most university and college campuses in the country now have food banks and financial support offices to tackle the very real rise of student poverty (for more check out this video). In response, both the Ontario and Federal governments have introduced measures in their 2016 budgets to address financial barriers to access. Here is an outline of what has been promised.