Funds now automatically deposited into students’ bank accounts
Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
The process of receiving funds from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) loan has become more convenient this year for students.
David Raymont, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities
says students are no longer required to line up to receive, sign, and submit an OSAP funding
certificate since the Ministry deemed the paper-based loan document pick-up process too time consuming for students and financial aid offices.
“Financial aid offices will be able to dedicate more time to assisting students with OSAP-related questions as opposed to distributing loan documents,” says Raymont.
Paper-loan documents are also more likely to be lost or not picked up by students resulting in lost funding, a problem the new process solves, Raymont says.
Now students sign only one loan document, a Master Student Financial Assistance Agreement (MSFAA), which remains in effect for the duration of their post-secondary studies, unless there is a break of more than two years.
At the beginning of each term, the student’s school confirms their enrolment to the Ministry, and provided the student has completed their OSAP application and has submitted a signed MSFAA, the student’s OSAP funding is automatically deposited into their bank account.
Students should receive their funding four to 10 days after classes started if they completed their application and submitted their loan agreements to Canada Post prior to the start of the school year, says Raymont.
He says delays may occur if a student’s application is not complete, if the loan agreement is not finished and submitted, or if there is a delay in the school confirming that the student has started classes.
Raymont says these changes bring Ontario into a more modern service delivery model while reducing paper use. Implementing the new loan agreement will result in government savings of over $150,000.
BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador are all moving to Master Student Financial Assistance Agreements as well.
There are now almost 210,000 MSFAAs already properly submitted to the National Student Loans Service Centre and most of these students will see funds in their accounts by the third week of September, Raymont says.
