In Brief

Tessa Vanderhart, Staff

Province boosts bursaries

The provincial government has provided an additional $500,000 in bursary funding, to be administered through Manitoba Student Aid this fall. The additional funding will predominantly be administered through Canada Millennium Scholarship and Manitoba Bursary, and will be given to the most financially burdened students.

Tom Gainwright, the Executive Director of Manitoba Student Aid is enthusiastic about the implications of the new funding for post-secondary students. He explained that bursaries are integral to keeping education affordable in Manitoba.

Gainwright said that new policy enables students to borrow up to $2,500 more to pay for their education — as a result of the increased funding — and increases the amount of debt forgiven at the same time. More students will now be eligible for student aid.

“After you incur debt through the student loan process, we remit debt back to a manageable level — it’s been around $6,000 for the last number of years,” said Gainwright. “This year, we increased the loan limits so that students are eligible for more funding . . . The increase in the bursaries will ensure that we keep the debt [of students] manageable.”

No real changes in admission policy

The Winnipeg Free Press reported on Saturday, July 9 that the University of Manitoba plans to raise admission requirements to an average of 70 per cent for incoming high school graduates.

However, admission requirements remain almost identical to those in place in previous years, although students with low marks are now required — rather than strongly encouraged — to seek assistance.

In previous years, students entering the university with marks between 63 and 70 per cent were often directed to the Access program or other avenues of help, such as intensive first-year classes or primer “zero year” classes, to bring them up to the preferred average of 70 per cent.

More Manitoba MDs

The University of Manitoba’s medical school will increase enrolment by 15 seats over the next two years, bringing the total number of seats available to 100.

Health Minister Tim Sale and Advanced Education Minister Diane McGifford have teamed up to revitalize the medical education plan. In addition to increased enrolment, a plan has been unveiled to provide grants of $50,000 to doctors who return to university to train in a high-demand field, such as emergency medicine or anesthesiology.

The program that provides financial incentives to work in northern and rural Manitoba will also be expanded, as will intake levels for international medical graduates, in an effort to attract and retain more doctors where they are most needed in the province.

The new initiatives are intended to augment the provincial government’s goals to make Manitoba a destination of choice for medical graduates, and to increase diversity in the field.