Saskatchewan students attending university or college next year have easier access to loans and won’t be penalized for working too much while studying, the province said Friday.
The changes to provincial student loan qualifications will broaden access for financial assistance, said Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris at the Saskatoon Business College Friday morning.
“These are small changes that will make a huge difference for students studying in Saskatchewan,” Norris said at the announcement event.
Full-time students can now work as much as they want during the school year without worrying that more hours might disqualify them from financial assistance.
Previously, a student using government loans could only earn up to $50 per week without incurring financial penalties.
“Rather than have the government dictate how much you work and what shifts you can pick-up, we’ll leave that to students to determine,” Norris said.
Also, students who drive their own cars won’t have to include vehicle ownership in loan calculations, allowing some students get larger loans. Vehicles worth more $5,000 were previously included in assessments that determine the size of a loan.
The government has also reduced interest on floating-rate loans to prime. Previously, floating-rate loans were prime plus 2.5 per cent. Fixed-rate loans were prime plus five per cent, and are now prime plus 2.5 per cent.
The changes Norris announced on Friday were first mentioned in the 2010-11 budget released in March.
Kelsi Zoerb, 19, is paying $10,000 for the one-year legal administrative assistant program at the Saskatoon Business College.
She said she couldn’t have attended without help from the province.
“I needed a loan or else this wasn’t going to happen,” Zoerb said after speaking at the event. “I know some people who couldn’t get a loan because they owned a car, or they couldn’t work too much because they’d get screwed over.”
The government gave her a bursary and a grant worth $1,500 together. She also works part-time.
“I’m not stressed out, but I don’t have to pay it back so I feel comfortable,” Zoerb said.
The government annually provides Saskatchewan students with about $40 million in financial assistance, 65 per cent of which is in the form of non-repayable bursaries and grants, according to the ministry.
Norris used the event to launch the province’s new marketing campaign aimed at post-secondary students. Ministry employees will attend public summer events across the province to promote student financial assistance.
The two-month campaign, which includes ads on social-networking website Facebook, cost about $76,000, according to the ministry.
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