Note 5: Assessing Aid

This post is part of a week-long series.

One of the values on which the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation based their program was "to deliver aid to under-represented students who appear to be under-served by the existing financial aid system." Surprisingly, these under-represented students are those from low-income families.

The assumption that grants are already targeted to low-income students through existing financial aid architecture appears to be incorrect.

Part of this seems to lie in the cost-conscious nature of low-income students, and part in students' dependency statuses.

The need-based system tends to favour those who are considered independent, despite research indicating that many still receive funding from their parents. Moreover, low-income students tend to enrol in less expensive programs, live at home, and work during school, all to reduce their costs. Hence, they miss out. In fact:

Almost 60% of the $1.07 billion spent on grants in 2001 was provided to individuals from the top two income quartiles.

Which is why the Millennium access bursaries were created. By complementing the needs-based system, the access bursaries were meant to fill the gaps in student aid.

Now, as we look to 2009-2010 when the Canada Student Grant Program will replace Millennium, we are faced with a consolidation of federal grant programs. What this entails is not yet clear, but there is certainly a concern that not all students' needs will be met, especially the under-represented. And with no funding in place to continue research, we are already missing the studies and pilot projects meant to identify those very needs. Continue reading...

Millennium Research

From the Millennium Research Program website:

The Millennium Research Program was launched in 2001 to assist the Foundation in carrying out its mandate to improve access to post-secondary education and provide students with the educational opportunities they need to prepare themselves for the future. The Research Program advances the study of barriers to post-secondary education and the impact of policies and programs designed to alleviate them. It ensures that policy-making and public discussion about opportunities in higher education in Canada can be informed by rigorous analysis and empirical evidence.

Last year, the Government of Canada decided not to renew the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation after its initial mandate is complete. It will be sorely missed.

Over the next week, I will feature one of the program's Research Notes per day, outlining the findings and what they might mean to us. So stay tuned to learn more, and don't hesitate to comment in order to facilitate further discussion on these crucial matters. Continue reading...