Kate Hébert had no trouble getting accepted into university. Despite having a part-time job, she graduated with the fifth-highest average in a class of 215. But she struggled with one key aspect of continuing her education: finding the money to pay for it.
The Millennium Scholarship Foundation helped Kate Hébert enrol at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.
The Millennium Scholarship Foundation helped Kate Hébert enrol at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.
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Ms. Hébert was so determined that she applied for 180 scholarships and bursaries. She has dreamed of becoming a lawyer since her parents divorced when she was nine. Though money is tight — her mother is raising her and her younger sister on a gas station cashier's salary — skipping out on a postsecondary education "was never really an option," says the 18-year-old from Sussex, N.B.
For low-income students like Ms. Hébert, going to university presents an enormous financial challenge, and many opt for the security of a steady paycheque over years of deep debt.
The low postsecondary participation rates of young adults from poor families have long troubled policy makers, university administrators and other education advocates, many of whom warn of pending labour shortages. According to a Statistics Canada report this year, less than one-third of 19-year-olds whose families' earnings fell in the bottom income bracket (less than $40,819 for a family of four) went to university in 2003, compared with half of those whose parents were in the top range, which was $82,000 and higher.
"There's a lot of talent there," said Norman Riddell, executive director of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. "Intelligence isn't a respecter of income, it occurs randomly in the population. And from the point of view of society, from the point of view of the individual, there's a lot of potential there to be developed through education and we're not getting it."
In an effort to help more poor kids claim spots in university lecture halls, organizations are increasingly offering targeted grants and other measures, though programs are far from widespread. In addition to university bursaries and non-repayable grants awarded in conjunction with student loan programs, various governments and the scholarship foundation earmark at least $83-million for low-income students, according to the Educational Policy Institute, an international think tank with offices in Toronto.
Given its focus and scope, the scholarship foundation is perhaps at the forefront of the issue of increasing participation rates among poor kids. The organization was established by the federal government in 1998 with a mandate of improving access to postsecondary institutions, especially for underrepresented groups. Some $40-million of the foundation's annual $350-million bursary and scholarship allocation is specifically earmarked for kids from low-income backgrounds. (The foundation's mandate expires in 2010, though officials are hopeful it will be extended.)
Young people from poor families face multiple challenges in accessing postsecondary institutions. Studies have found three interrelated barriers: lack of money, flawed information and poor academic preparation.
University is expensive, and many low-income families cannot afford to contribute to tuition bills. And since many such parents have not attended postsecondary institutions themselves, they also tend to overestimate the costs while underestimating the benefits.
"They've all read that Harvard costs 40,000 bucks a year, so [they think] it's really expensive to go to university," says Mr. Riddell. "And … they've all read stories about taxi drivers with PhDs not making very much money. And so there's this kind of mythology out there, and so they make a logical decision on the basis of terrible information."
Being poor also means little money for books, tutors and enrichment programs. Without extra support, many low-income children often later lack the grades needed to get into university. Researchers consistently find that children from higher-income backgrounds generally outperform their poorer peers.
As well, such youngsters often grow up without knowing anyone (other than teachers) who has attended university, meaning a lack of role models. They also miss out on the encouragement to pursue their studies that richer kids get on a regular basis.
Indeed, the solutions to increasing postsecondary access are complex, and simply providing more money is not the only answer. The scholarship foundation, which conducts pilot programs and research to discover better ways of reaching needy students, realized a few years ago that many students receiving its bursaries — which were then given to those with the highest need and largest loans — were middle class. The reason? Poor students who attend universities and colleges tend to minimize their costs by choosing less pricey programs, living with their parents and working part-time. "Frequently, a poor person will have a smaller loan than a middle-class person who's left home, renting an apartment, enrolled in dentistry or medicine and paying a high fee and didn't work during the summer," says Mr. Riddell.
As a result, the foundation created the Millennium Access Bursaries, which are linked to the student loan system and, in many provinces, are awarded solely based on family income.
One recipient was James Van, the eldest child of Vietnamese immigrants, whose path to university has been marked by financial hurdles. His father works in a picture-framing store and his mother occasionally babysits, giving them an annual income of just $30,000 on which to raise a family of six in Vancouver. Continuing his education — Mr. Van is in his second year of studying human kinetics at the University of British Columbia — has meant paying his own way. He waits tables part-time and has already racked up $11,000 in student loans. He still lives at home in his family's public housing unit and helps his parents pay for groceries and bills.
Mr. Van got a bit of a break last January in the form of a $3,000 bursary from the foundation. "It was very beneficial for me," says the 19-year-old, who wants to become a physiotherapist. "It's just a great weight thrown off my back."
In addition to giving money to students already enrolled in postsecondary institutions, the scholarship foundation, along with provincial governments, is involved with high-school pilot projects in an effort to develop earlier measures to boost university participation.
In British Columbia, more than 1,300 students are participating in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, which focuses on transforming average kids into top pupils through rigorous postsecondary preparation. The elective high-school course, for which teens must apply, teaches skills related to writing, studying, inquiry, collaboration, reading and note-taking. Students receive tutoring for their other coursework and are encouraged to take honours or advanced placement classes. They are also introduced to the world of higher education through tours of universities and colleges and visits by local professionals. Administrators say the exposure is invaluable: Many of the teens come from poor, immigrant or low-educated families and wouldn't otherwise consider continuing their educations.
Many of the students taking AVID, which is based on a model developed in the United States, are part of an ongoing research project to determine the course's efficacy and have not yet graduated. However, at one Chilliwack school that has been offering the program longer, 16 students of an AVID Grade 12 class of 25 planned to pursue some form of postsecondary education this fall, including one who was accepted into an engineering program. "They wind up believing in themselves," said Stan Watchorn, the program's director of instruction in Chilliwack.
Another initiative, offered in New Brunswick and Manitoba, also focuses on teaching high-school students about postsecondary education. Called Future to Discover, the pilot project has two components: money and career counselling. Selected teens from low-income backgrounds in New Brunswick are given an $8,000 learning account they can withdraw from over two years if they enroll in a college or university. Other pupils, along with their parents, receive information about career options through workshops and by meeting university and college students. Some receive both the financial incentive and counselling. The project is also being evaluated to see whether it increases postsecondary enrolment.
"We do hear anecdotal stories in terms of parents saying to their kids, 'We can't afford to send you to university, we don't have any money set aside to send you.' And a lot of kids will stop thinking or stop dreaming in terms of what they can do after high school," said Yves Pelletier, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's manager of pilot projects.
The program is helping Kate Hébert fund her education. She enrolled at St. Thomas University in Fredericton last month with $16,000 in student awards, enough to fully cover her first-year tuition and residence fees. Included in that is $4,000, half of her learning account. Despite the many hours she spent seeking financial assistance, she credits the account with giving her some peace of mind.
"I probably would have entered more scholarships, maybe worked a little bit harder," she says. "But because I knew it was there, it made it a little bit easier. I was a little bit calmer knowing that no matter what happened, I still had that money."
