by Martha Tancock
Communications

Few students know about the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant Program, otherwise known as the loan-forgiveness plan. And if they don't, they could be repaying more of their student loans than they have to.

      Students only have to repay the first $7,000 on Ontario Student Assistance Program (osap) loans negotiated after Aug. 1, 1997. The rest is forgiven. Students only have to repay the first $6,000 of each yearly (two-term) loan for osap loans negotiated before that. That's if they consolidate their loans with the banks within six months of graduating or leaving. Not a minor detail and a deadline often missed.

      That's why financial aid co-ordinator Joyce Sutton has produced brochures giving students step-by-step directions on what to do to qualify. She outlines procedures students and banks should follow for consolidating loans, dates to remember to qualify for interest relief as well as loan forgiveness. She lists differences between Ontario and Canada student loan interest-free periods and other arcane details from which students can benefit. The last page describes how different banks process student-loan repayments and lists useful phone and fax numbers and Web sites where students can get more information.

      Sutton has to update the brochure yearly to keep abreast of government changes to student loan repayment eligibility. This year is no exception.

      Last summer, the Ontario government upped the ante on its loan-forgiveness program and required university students to repay $7,000 of annual loans negotiated after Aug. 1, 1997. That's $1,000 more than they had to pay back per loan-year since the government introduced loan forgiveness in 1995. The government would deposit the forgiven portion directly into the bank.

      In February, when he repackaged loan-forgiveness as a grant program, the Minister of Education and Training Dave Johnson also announced parents would be expected to pay a bigger portion of their child's postsecondary education. Sutton says he is eroding recent reforms that eased the burden on middle-class parents.

      To make matters worse, parents are deemed financially responsible for their children's education for five years after their children leave high school. Up to now, students were considered independent and could qualify for osap funding after four years out of high school or two years in the work force. Now, says Sutton, parents will be responsible for paying for the first year of a master's degree if their child has followed the usual route from high school to university. And a person who has left home and supported himself for two years will not be eligible for osap as an independent for an additional three years.

      "There will have to be exceptions, some way around it," says Sutton of the new rules, which are effective Aug. 1, 1998. "But I haven't seen any exceptions spelled out yet."