Last month, the Quebec Student Union published a report on university student funding and debt in Quebec prepared by the Groupe de recherche en économie publique appliquée. It showed that 41.1 per cent of university student loans were obtained through private financial institutions rather than the student financial assistance program. Government-funded student loans, bursary programs and bank loans account for about 88.5 per cent of all student loans, a proportion which varies by program eligibility. Among eligible students, 53.5 per cent of debt is held by government programs, while among ineligible students, 73.7 per cent is held by banks. The report also revealed that students' top expenses are housing (28.9 per cent), tuition (16.7 per cent), food (15.9 per cent) and transportation (7.2 per cent).
"When parents can't meet their children's financial needs, student loans provide crucial support in paying for tuition, books and other expenses," said Jacinthe Cloutier, a faculty member of the consumer sciences department at Université Laval. Other factors influencing parental purchasing power also have an impact on students. "In recent years in particular, inflation has made it hard for parents to save - for their children or for themselves," she said.
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