Post-secondary students in Ontario say the government's decision to reduce financial assistance grants while lifting a long-standing tuition fee freeze will leave students who are already struggling financially with more debt.
The government said last week that it will decrease the proportion of grants offered through the Ontario Student Assistance Program from about 85 per cent of funding to a maximum of 25 per cent in the fall, making the rest student loans. Ontario is also lifting a seven-year tuition fee freeze to allow colleges and universities to raise fees by up to two per cent per year for the next three years.
Alex Stratas of the student union at the University of Ottawa said the changes in OSAP structure are devastating for students who rely on the program's grants to pay for food, housing and tuition.
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"This is a genuine threat to Ontario's future, and this is a message from the Ford government that they don't care about students," she said.
Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn has said that demand for OSAP has been rising significantly and the growth was unsustainable. He said the changes will ensure "sustainability and balance for the system," and access to OSAP for future generations.
But Stratas, a fourth-year political science and communications student, said she and many others couldn't afford school without OSAP grants because they don't have enough financial support from family.
"This is the reality that students are facing," she said. "We're seeing a cost-of-living crisis, they can't find housing that's affordable, the transit system is constantly down, so the accessibility to move from one place to another is not there. Groceries are getting more expensive, and now school is going to be impossible to pay for, so it's really a question of like: what more is this provincial government going to take from students?"
Stratas said students will protest the changes.
"We've been co-ordinating with student unions across ... the province to organize a day of action where we all go protest at Queen's Park," she said.
Husam Morra, the president of University of Windsor Students' Alliance, said students are already facing an affordability crisis and the changes will make education less accessible. The fourth-year computer science student said students will be affected even after graduation as they will have to pay back larger loans.
"When you're looking at an affordability crisis, I mean it extends into multiple things. It's transportation, housing, groceries, the job market," he said. "When all of these things are combined, it is absolutely going to be more difficult for students to cover these loans once they graduate."
The changes announced by the government came with an additional $6.4 billion for the post-secondary sector over four years, following a funding formula review and a strong push from cash-strapped colleges and universities.
Ontario universities and colleges have long faced low levels of government funding, stagnant tuition levels since 2019 and sharply reduced numbers of international students, who are charged far higher tuition fees than domestic students.
Colleges in particular increasingly turned to international student tuition revenue to stabilize finances after the government cut tuition fees by 10 per cent and froze them at that level seven years ago.
Aidan Kallioinen of the Carleton University Students' Association said he was happy to see the province recognize the importance of stable funding for the post-secondary sector, but he's concerned about cuts to student grants.
"We know that over two thirds of students in Ontario rely on OSAP to some degree, and financial aid structures matter a lot to households when a student is looking at where they're going to do their education," he said.
"We know a lot of students, post-education, struggle with long-term debt, struggle to pay those loans off, and by making these loan structures less generous, it's definitely going to reduce their overall financial stability when they exit university."
Kallioinen said new students will have different funding packages compared to those who are graduating soon, which will create "an imbalance."
He said the changes could also have a negative impact on Ontario's economy and post-secondary enrolment rates.
"There's definitely concerns that this puts education out of reach for particularly low-and middle-income students that may not have the financial capacity to take on that amount of debt, and it has long-term impacts on the economy," he said.
"If we see less Ontarians going out and getting a post-secondary degree, we may see shortages in key job sectors. We may see universities struggling to keep their enrolment numbers consistent."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2026.
