Students struggling with soaring costs and debt ignored by federal loan review
Canadian students need relief from unaffordable tuition fees and a loan system that punishes them instead of helping them earn an education, said NDP Postsecondary Education critic Denise Savoie (Victoria).
“Students are arriving on campus this week seeking a brighter future,” said Savoie. “But they get slapped on the way in with unaffordable tuition fees, and on the way out with unreasonable interest rates on the loans they were forced to take out. These are major roadblocks to postsecondary education.”
More grants and a lower interest rate are essential to ease the burden of student debt that weighs on students and graduates for a decade or more after they’ve completed their studies. However, the review of student assistance mandated in the last federal budget has been restricted to minor administrative tweaking by the Harper conservatives.
“Students and graduates are victims of an inadequate and inflexible system, but their stories and voices are being shut out by this review process,” said Savoie. “Harper claims that all options are open, but the review is closed to the public, and we’ve heard from student groups that the mandate is strictly limited to ‘modernization and harmonization’. Any tangible recommendations to help students are summarily dismissed.”
The NDP’s Fix Student Aid petition, launched on campuses across Canada, calls on Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg to broaden the mandate of his review to include real solutions for students. The petition is available online at www.ndp.ca/education
“Students aren’t asking for a free ride – they’re asking for the fairness, flexibility and understanding which the loan system does not provide,” said Savoie. “If the Minister won’t ask students their opinion without a patronizing pat on the head, NDP MPs will bring the voice of students to him – one petition at a time.”
The NDP campaign also calls for:
· A federal Student Loan Ombudsperson to help navigate the loan system, objectively resolve problems and ensure that students are treated with fairness and respect;
· Better relief during repayment of student loans, including expanding eligibility for permanent disability benefits, interest relief and debt reduction;
· Enforceable federal standards governing the conduct of student loan collection agents;
· Amending the “lifetime limit” so that loans are not repayable until six months after the completion of full-time studies, including doctoral programs and medical residency;
· Reducing the discriminatory ban on bankruptcy protection for student loans to two years;
· Addressing the input of the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness and other student groups.
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