Question Period Note: Budget 2025 Announcement on Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students Eligibility

In Budget 2025, the Government committed to addressing the integrity of student financial assistance, including through a measure to no longer provide the Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students to students attending for-profit private educational institutions. Subject to regulatory changes, this measure will come into effect in the 2026-27 school year.The Government of Canada provides Canada Student Grants and Loans to support access to post-secondary education.

To be eligible for the Canada Student Grant for Full-time Students, a student must be enrolled in a program of study that is at least two years (60 weeks) in duration. Students enrolled in shorter programs have never been eligible for the Canada Student Grant for Full-time Students and are therefore not affected by this measure.

Students attending private for-profit institutions will still have access to other grants and loans, including interest-free Canada Student Loans as well as Canada Student Grants for Students with Dependants, Students with Disabilities, Part-Time Studies, and the Grant for Services and Equipment for Students with Disabilities.

The measure proposed in the Budget aims to improve stewardship of public funds by ensuring that most non-repayable financial assistance is directed toward students attending public and not-for-profit institutions.

Students attending career colleges who take programs under two years will not experience any changes in student financial support.

Recent rapid growth in longer duration programs at private career colleges has resulted in a large increase in disbursements of the Canada Student Grant for Full-time Students; this, combined with poorer employment outcomes and loan repayment rates, is leading to increased cost and financial risks to the Government and to students.

For longer programs, the measure would ensure that public funds support education and training at public institutions with better labour market outcomes.

IF PRESSED (Rapid growth in disbursements)

As of academic year 2023-24, the number of student grants and loan recipients in private for-profit post-secondary institutions more than doubled compared to five years ago, whereas recipients attending university remained stable, and those attending colleges declined by 11 percent.

More importantly, during the same period, the number of recipients for the flagship grant, the Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students (available only to students attending 2-year or longer programs) nearly tripled (from approximately 23,000 in 2018-19 to 66,000 in 2023-24) along with the growth in programs over two years in length.

The student loan default rate for private for-profit post-secondary students (16 percent) is significantly higher than for those attending public institutions (five percent for university students and nine percent for public college students).

The Canada Student Financial Assistance (CSFA) Program provides need-based grants and interest-free loans to help students access post-secondary education and offers the Repayment Assistance Plan to borrowers with financial difficulty. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada Student Grants (CSGs) were temporarily doubled over pre-pandemic amounts from the 2020-21 through 2022-23 school years. To address ongoing affordability challenges, CSGs were subsequently increased by 40 percent over their pre-pandemic amounts for the 2023-2025 school years, with a recent extension for 2025-26. Post-secondary students can benefit from the following grants: 

Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students (CSG-FT): up to $4,200 for a typical academic year (versus up to $3,000 in 2019-2020); 

Canada Student Grant for Part-Time Studies: up to $2,520 annually (versus up to $1,800 in 2019-2020); 

Canada Student Grant for Students with Disabilities: $2,800 annually (versus $2,000 in 2019-2020); 

Canada Student Grant for Full-Time Students with Dependants: up to $2,240 per dependant per typical academic year (versus $1,600 in 2019-2020); and 

Canada Student Grant for Part-Time Students with Dependants: maximum of $2,688 annually (versus $1,920 in 2019-2020). 

Students with disabilities can also receive the Canada Student Grant for Services and Equipment for Students with Disabilities, which reimburses expenditures up to $20,000 per academic year.

Canada Student Loans (CSLs) were also increased from $210 per week to $300 for two years (2023-25), and then again for 2025-26. This means full-time students can receive a maximum of $10,200 in interest-free loans for a typical 34-week academic year (previously $7,140). Prior to 2023-24, the weekly loan limit had remained at the same level ($210) since 2005-06, except when it was temporarily increased to $350 for 2020-21 as part of COVID-19 relief measures.   

Ministers quotes / Quotes by key stakeholders

“We want to ensure that public money goes to public institutions…”

"We are ensuring that students who need financial support continue to [receive it], we are making sure Canada Student Grants are available to students who need them."

• Hon. Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families, Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA), 25 November 2025

“The Liberal Budget Discriminates Against Students at Career Colleges, and in key programs preparing youth for good jobs. Aspiring Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, and many other students are about to be cut off because the Liberal government does not respect the work they do.”

• Garnett Genuis, MP (Sherwood Park – Fort Saskatchewan), HUMA, 25 November 2025

“NACC and our members are calling on the Federal Government to work together with our sector to consider this decision as they develop the legislative changes and regulatory processes to ensure that learners retain their right to choose their educational pathways,”

• Michael Sangster, CEO, National Association of Career Colleges, Response to the Budget, 6 November 2025