Post-Secondary Funding Package: New Dollars Can’t Mask Rising Costs and Debt Burden for Students

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GUELPH, ON — Students at the University of Guelph have spent years sounding the alarm on the funding crisis on our campus. The Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security’s long-overdue injection of new operating dollars is therefore welcome. This grant is estimated to increase the University’s operating budget revenues by approximately $67.5 million next year. However, the government is attaching strings that will leave Guelph students paying more up front and repaying more for decades.

“Students have fought for years to reverse the chronic underfunding our campuses have experienced,” said CSA President Nate Broughton. “That stability can protect program quality and add the high-demand seats we desperately need—yet every dollar is paired with a policy that pushes the cost onto students.”

While the new money is essential, the government is coupling it with policy choices that will make education more expensive and less accessible for the very students it claims to support. A 2-per-cent annual tuition increase for the next three years will add up to $230 to a University of Guelph student’s tuition bill in the 2026-27 academic year alone.

Starting this fall, a new OSAP model is being introduced which will gut the current system in favour of increasing student debt. The previous framework allowed students from low- and middle-income families to receive up to 85 per cent of their assistance as non-repayable grants. The new model caps grants at 25 per cent and mandates that at least 75 per cent of every aid package be loans. For University of Guelph students relying on OSAP, this means a loss of $23.5 million in grants and an additional $23.4 million in loans across campus next year, and the average OSAP recipient will graduate with around $27,060 in debt accumulated over a four-year degree. Crucially, these loans accumulate interest, meaning the dramatic shift from grants to debt will significantly extend repayment periods and force students to pay back substantially more than they borrowed.

“Investing billions on one hand while saddling students with record debt on the other is a bad deal for Ontario,” Broughton said. “Higher education is meant to open the door to new opportunities, yet this package risks slamming it shut with years of unavoidable payments.”

Piling even more costs onto students while ending the tuition freeze is not a plan that works. Ontario already graduates students with some of the country’s largest debt burdens; higher tuition plus a minimum 75-per-cent loan requirement for OSAP will push those burdens even higher.

“Students have been clear: we need public investment, not cost shifting onto individual students and families,” Broughton concluded. “Working closely with the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario and our other partners, we will continue to engage the University of Guelph, MPPs, and the provincial government to ensure these new dollars move us closer to free and accessible education for all.”

The CSA urges all students and allies to take immediate action against these detrimental changes. Visit csaonline.ca/hands-off now to learn more & take action. We are also actively collaborating with our partners at CFS-Ontario on further actions, to ensure student voices are heard loudly and clearly.

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The Central Student Association represents over 28,000 undergraduate students at the University of Guelph. As a student-led, not-for-profit organization, the CSA advocates for student interests and provides essential services, supports, and advocacy on campus.