POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION COSTS
AND STUDENT DEBT.

No matter how you look at it, a post-secondary education can come with a staggering price tag. The good news is that if you start saving early with a USC Education Savings Plan, you can take advantage of the power of tax-deferred savings and that will help you prepare to afford the costs of post-secondary education and reduce or even eliminate the burden of debt that many students carry today.

Student debt – the facts.

• Almost 60% of students who graduated from an undergraduate program in 2006 did so with debt.¹
• The average debt for an undergraduate student is over $24,000.¹
• The average debt for an undergraduate student in Ontario is $22,700.²
• Average debt increased from $10,800 in 1990 to $14,504 in 1998.²
• Medical students typically accumulate between $80,000 and $100,000 in debt.³
• A student with a private loan in Ontario carries an average debt of $7,500. Working part-time at minimum wage a student would need to work over five hours per week during school just to pay the interest.⁴
• 27% of students with government loans have an average of $9,200 in private debt.⁴
• 19% of students without government support have an average of $6,300 in private debt.⁴
• A $28,000 loan paid back over ten years will cost a student $42,563.⁵
• 31% of Canadian families have some form of student debt. For these households, student loans represent 51% of their total debt.⁶
• The average debt for an undergraduate student in Ontario today is double what is was in 1990.⁷

For more information about the cost of a post-secondary education, download a PDF of our 2009 USCI Guide to Education Costs.

1 Macleans Guide to Canadian Universities, 2008.
2 Canada Millenium Scholarship Foundation, 2002.
3 The London Free Press, 2003.
4 Canada Millenium Scholarship Foundation, 2003.
5 Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, 2003
6 Centre for Educational Statistics, 1999
7 Journal article excerpt, article from Tom Mcconaghy; Phi Delta Kappan, vol 78, 1997.