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Paper-free loans to save students time, not money
August 29, 2008 05:00
Student loans are going paper-free, but it will only save students time, not money.
Education Minister Karen Casey yesterday announced a new streamlined student loan process to cut the waiting period in half.
“Students can avoid waiting in line to have their applications processed for a loan,” Casey said.
“They can do the full application online and we predict that that will reduce the amount of processing time from four to five weeks, to two to three weeks.”
Student groups commended the move, but said it doesn’t change the fact tuition is still too high.
Kaley Kennedy of the Canadian Federation of Students said university graduates still face huge amounts — on average $28,000 — of debt.
“Our hope is that some of the cost-savings that are seen from (recently-announced) programs … will ensure we can see more grants,” she said.
The average price of tuition in Nova Scotia was $5,878 last year – that was $1,354 more than the national average, according to Statistics Canada. New numbers will be released next month.
Paris Meilleur, executive director of Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations, said an even bigger issue is the differential tuition fees.
Nova Scotia students pay $761 less tuition this year than their out-of-province counterparts. Quebec is the only other province to do so.
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