Students across the province face significant financial barriers to accessing post-secondary education. The COVID-19 Pandemic has only exacerbated these barriers and increased student concerns about the affordability of post-secondary education.
OUSA continues to advocate for improvements to the Student Access Guarantee (SAG) program and OSAP to address the gaps that make post-secondary education unaffordable for students.
On October 8, 2020, OUSA submitted its recommendations to improve the SAG to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.
OUSA made the following recommendations to increase the effectiveness, transparency, and awareness of Ontario's Student Access Guarantee Program:
- The OSAP estimator should be updated to provide students with an estimation of how much funding they will receive through SAG and a thorough explanation of the program and timelines for receipt of funding.
- The Student Access Guarantee Policy Manual should be amended to ensure that institutional SAG processes are streamlined, consistent, and transparent.
- The SAG assessment tool should be amended to include indirect costs of accessing post-secondary education.
Read our written submission here: