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Category: Student Aid

Coronavirus (20) – So, that Student Support Package

If there is one thing that unites the higher education community right now, it is the fact that we are all so, so, tired.  One thing after another.  And yesterday, just as I was thinking about what nice non-coronavirus story I could tell you, the feds dropped a $9 billion program to support students through COVID.  So naturally, this here is your explainer. The comms on this are a bit of a mess, but basically, this initiative has four pillars,

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April 23, 2020 7 Comments

Coronavirus (10) – Student Support

One thing that has not yet received a lot of attention is the financial impact of the coronavirus on students.  The obvious answer is that it’s going to be very tough: the shut-down specifically targets the sectors that students rely on for jobs: tourism, restaurants/bars, and other service industries.  Though there may be a surge of temp jobs in the health industry and supply chain (either in fulfillment centres or deliveries of various sorts), it’s not difficult to foresee summer

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April 1, 2020 10 Comments

The Lawsuit That Could Remake Canadian Student Assistance

This week in Toronto, an Ontario court is hearing the case of Jasmin Simpson, a deaf-blind Ontario woman who is suing the federal and provincial governments on account of the way they provide assistance to students with disabilities.  The Ottawa Citizen ran a very good article on the case yesterday, but I thought I would add my $.02 because the case potentially has some very big ratifications. (Before we start, I need to declare an interest.  For several years, I have worked with

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January 16, 2020 1 Comment

Designing Student Aid Programs from Scratch (4)

If you’re joining late, we’re talking about the policy decisions that need to be made when creating a student aid system.  Read up on student loan origination, student loan repayment parameters and the loans/grants balance. So now we’ve got all the big pieces in place – where the money comes from, how much is going to be loan vs. grant, and how loans are going to be recuperated.  Now we get to the really fiddly bits: how to ration the aid (warning: this is a stupidly

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December 5, 2019 2 Comments

Designing Student Aid Programs from Scratch (3)

Welcome back to this little series.  On Monday and Tuesday we looked at loans – how to pay for them and how to design repayment systems.  Today, I want to introduce grants into the mix (to be clear, I’m only talking about grants where need is the primary criterion – there’s a whole other set of policy considerations about merit-based aid, which I’m going to leave to one side during this discussion). Theoretically, the grants vs. loans debate is one of the most important

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December 4, 2019 1 Comment
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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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