Trevor Holder is the minister of post-secondary education, training and labour in New Brunswick. (Submitted)
New Brunswick is expanding its tuition bursary program to include students at private colleges and universities.
But no extra money is being set aside for the bursary program, meaning the average student will get less.
On Tuesday, the province announced expanding the program will help 1,700 more students in the upcoming school year.
Post-Secondary Education Minister Trevor Holder said their goal is to help level the playing field for all students.
“We did not believe it was fair that somebody that attended a private institution, getting the same training as someone in a publicly-funded institution, didn’t have access to the same bursary,” said Holder.
Maximum Bursary Amount Reduced
Holder said the “same envelope of money” will be spread among students at both public and private institutions.
The maximum amount a student can receive will be reduced to $3,000 from $10,000, but Holder noted the average provincial payout under the previous program was $2,900.
Holder said reintroducing the tuition tax credit, which was cut by the previous Liberal government, will offset the reduction.
“When the tax credit was in place, it was about $500 a year per student,” he said. “That’s roughly about what the average payout in the TAB program will be down by.”
The Higgs government is also eliminating the timely completion benefit as part of the changes.
Holder said the “very costly” benefit was not reaching enough New Brunswickers. The benefit helped just 281 people in 2017-18 at a cost of $3.3 million.
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