Synopsis

Post-secondary tuition has been rising each year. Students in Saskatchewan pay an average of $6,885 per academic year, second only to Ontario students, who pay an average of $7,868.

Introduced the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship in 2011, which provides $500 per year for up to four years for Saskatchewan high school students who go onto post-secondary education within the province (1) Promises to increase the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship from $500 to $750 per student, per year when the province’s finances improve (2, 3, 4) Pledges to create the First Home Plan, which would allow Graduate Retention Program recipients to put up to $10,000 of their unused benefits towards a down payment on a first home; this would take the form of an interest free-loan that they would not have to repay as long as they keep the house for at least four years (2, 3, 4) Changed the Graduate Retention Program in 2015 from being a fixed, $2,000, refundable tax credit into a non-refundable tax credit, and extended the timeframe for benefit collection from seven to ten years. This means that those who make less than $40,000 or more in gross income will not receive the full benefit (11, 12)	Pledges to increase the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship from $500 to $1000 per student, per year (4, 5, 6) Promises to eliminate interest charges on all student loans and convert all provincial student loans to non-repayable grants by 2017 (4, 5, 6) Pledges to regulate and lower tuition fees for all the province's’ post-secondary institutions (5)	Pledges to reduce the interest rate on government student loans to the lowest rate of borrowing available to the Provincial government (7) Promises to stabilize provincial funding for universities to help stabilize tuition rates (7, 8) Pledges to de-link a student’s family income, employment income, and assets from Saskatchewan student loan qualifications (7)	Pledges to phase out all tuition for post-secondary students in Saskatchewan over a four-year period (9, 10) Promises to immediately reinstate the original Graduate Retention Program, thus increasing the refundable tax portion and lowering the waiting time to four years (9, 11, 12)

References

1. Saskatchewan Party Platform, page 8
2. CBC
3. Saskatchewan Party Platform
4. The Star Phoenix
5. CBC
6. Saskatchewan NDP Platform, page 10
7. Saskatchewan Liberal Platform, page 10
8. Saskatchewan Liberal Party Website,
9. Saskatchewan Green Party Website
10. Saskatchewan Green Party Website
11. CBC
12. Global News