Summary

This dossier highlights current issues related to financial access to higher education and suggests courses of action to foster student success in a context where inflation is rising and the cost of living is also going up.

This dossier details four socio-economic conditions that foster student success:

  1. food security;
  2. affordable housing;
  3. updated and all-encompassing student financial assistance (SFA) program;
  4. student remuneration in line with studies.

From a prospective outlook, this dossier also proposes prerequisites to the creation of a financial literacy program that would be aimed at helping the student population better understand the various forms of student debt.

Background

Accessible education for all

In the province of Québec, an access to education model was put in place in the 1960s, with the creation of the first CEGEPs and the Université du Québec Network as well as with the adoption of the Act respecting financial assistance for education expenses. Based on the concept of redistribution, the SFA program continues to have positive effects on access to higher education for several groups of the student population (e.g., first generation, lower socio-economic background) by breaking down financial barriers and inequalities of opportunity (Bouchard St-Amant, 2020; Colas & al., 2021).

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This document was produced with the financial support of the gouvernement du Québec, under the Canada-Québec Agreement.