The Canadian Experiment in Cost-Sharing and its Effects on Access to Higher Education, 1990–2002

Over the 1990s and into the new millennium, the financing of postsecondary education underwent considerable changes in Canada. During the middle part of the earlier decade, institutions saw a real fall in their income from government sources, while students and their families were called upon to at least partly fill this gap through a doubling of tuition fees (in real terms). Canada thus experienced a significant shift in the cost-sharing of postsecondary education, with the proportion of institutional revenue made up of government operating grants dropping from 80% to 60% and much of this gap being made up through higher student fees (Robertson 2003). At the same time, important changes were made to the student financial aid system, as governments shifted spending from need-based aid (grants and loans) to non-need-based aid (especially tax credits).