King’s offers bursaries for students without government loans

Bursaries are for students who don’t qualify for loans because of high-income parents, but still can’t afford tuition

Students at the University of King’s College will now be able to apply for bursaries from the King’s Bursary Program without having to take out a government loan. This change effects students whose parents’ income is too high for a loan, yet require financial assistance for post-secondary education.

Catherine Read, information and awards coordinator at the King’s registrar’s office, says a growing demand from students and suggestions from the College’s bursary committee resulted in the decision.

“There is not necessarily more money available now, but it does open up qualifications for [bursary] eligibility,” says Read.

King’s Student Union president Michaela Sam says the enhancement to the bursary program “happened through students coming together and expressing concern to our university’s administration about needing increased accessibility to the college.”

A parent declining to contribute to their child’s post-secondary education does not necessarily entail a government loan by law, according to the Nova Scotia Student Assistance Program’s website.

Read points out that some students have a family situation where the cheques for tuition cannot be written.

“We see a lot of students that are in need of assistance, and that for whatever reason they aren’t in eligibility for a loan,” says Sam. “And that’s why we’ve been advocating that the [Canada Student Loan Program] be converted into grants instead of loans.”

Sam says Newfoundland and Labrador is a fantastic example of this model: the province provides weekly, non-repayable grants to students from low to middle-income families. Sam added that students are putting a lot of pressure on the Nova Scotia government to follow suit.

Read said many students have been asking about applications already. The first deadline is the end of September, but the bursary program runs all year.