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Pan-Canadian Study of First Year College Students - Report 1 Student Characteristics and the College Experience - August 2007

9. Financing College

The study examined how college/institute students are financing their college education. The survey results confirmed that obtaining adequate funding to cover the various expenses associated with going to college was an ongoing concern. The College Entry Survey gathered students' perspectives on the different sources of funds they access to financer their college education, as well as their concerns about finances. The End of Term Survey also asked about students' concerns about finances and about how much students were working for pay during the semester.

9.1 Sources of Funding for College

As shown in Figure 5, the entry survey results confirmed that most respondent students (68 percent) relied on money from personal savings to finance their college/institute program. Loans were a source of funding for 55 percent of respondents, and almost 37 percent indicated money from parents that does not need to be repaid. Scholarships and awards were also sources of funds for a significant percentage of respondents, 27 percent, and 19 percent identified money from grants and contributions.

Figure 5 Sources of Funding to Finance College, 2005

"I wish I could have been better confirmed that obtaining adequate funding to cover the prepared financially."

When asked about the largest source of money to finance college, survey results confirmed that the sources that provided the largest amount of money for college studies were loans for up to 37 percent of students, followed by parents (28 percent) and personal savings (21 percent). In terms of the loans which students are accessing, the largest percentage of students (30 percent) confirmed that their loan was a government-sponsored loan, about one in ten held a bank loan or line of credit, and a small percentage (five percent) received a loan from parents for family.

9.2 Students' Concerns about Finances at Entry and End of First Term

At the beginning of the first term, up to 47 percent of respondents reported that they were very concerned with having enough money to pay for their studies and living expenses, and 43 percent were very concerned about the amount of debt they might accrue during their college studies. In addition, one-third indicated they were very concerned about their ability to repay the debt following graduation. This is further confirmed in Chapter 5 Student Debt: Trends and Consequences of The Price of Knowledge 2006 (Berger, Motte, Parkin, 2006) recently released by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, which concluded that the number of college and institute students with high levels of debt has grown during the last four years. It is quite alarming that one third of college/institute students will graduate with debt levels more often associated with university graduates.

It is also important to note that a large proportion of respondents' written survey comments on what they wish they had known better when they started college and their biggest challenge in the first year of college related to concerns about finances, as shown in the students' comments included in this section.

"I wish I had known how this would impact me financially, I find it difficult to make ends meet. Also, balancing working, and school and a family is quite difficult."

As shown in Table 5, at the end of the first term, students continued to be concerned about the financial aspects of their college studies. The results of the End of Term Survey confirmed that 39 percent, almost two in five respondent students, were very concerned about both having enough money to pay for their studies and living expenses, and the amount of debt they will have accumulated by the end of their postsecondary studies. In each case, an additional one-quarter reported they were 'moderately' concerned. In addition, over one quarter (27 percent) was very concerned about their ability to repay this debt within a reasonable time after graduation.

9.3 Working for Pay while going to College

Students working for pay while studying in college or university is a well documented phenomenon (Usher and Junor, 2004). There is ample evidence that first year students who work too many hours are more likely to have academic difficulty and to leave (Nora & Cabrera, 1996).

At college entry, up to 70 percent of respondent students confirmed they expected to work during the academic year. As shown in Table 6, the largest percentage, slightly over one-third, said they would be working between 10 and 20 hours per week, and an additional 16 percent indicated they would work 20 to 30 hours. Clearly, very high percentages of first-year college students expected to work at a job while studying.

Results from the end of term survey were slightly different as it would seem that as the term progress, fewer students reported working for pay while studying. Just over one-half of students reported they would not be working while studying, almost one-quarter indicated they would work between 10-20 hours per week and an additional one-sixth said they would work 20 hours or more.

Table 5. Students Very Concerned about Finances, 2005
Financial Concern	Very Concerned at College Entry (%)	Very Concerned at End of Term (%)
Having enough money for studies and living expenses	47	39
Amount of debt at end of PSE	43	39
Ability to repay debt	33	27
Source: College Entry Survey, 2005 and End of Term Survey, 2005

Table 6. Hours Expected to Work for Pay While Studying, 2005
Hours of Work	At College Entry (%)	At End of Term (%)
None	30	53
Less than 10 hours	11	9
10 to 20 hours	36	23
20 to 30 hours	16	9
Over 30 hours	7	6
Source: College Entry Survey, 2005 and End of Term Survey, 2005

"Balancing work and work and school in order to get good grades but also finance my education. This has been a serious problem because lately I have only been getting 3 — 4 hours of sleep on school nights as I work every week day from 6pm-8pm and it's a 1.5 hour commute from work to home. And from there I have to eat and get prepared to do school work which won't occur till about 10:30pm-11:00pm and I have 8am classes where I have to wake up around 5:30am."

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