page_title: Higher education in British Columbia
section_title: Student financial assistance
hierarchical_section_title: Higher education in British Columbia / Student financial assistance
caption_attribution_description: English: Gustavson School of Business
context_page_description: Higher education in British Columbia is delivered by 25 publicly funded institutions that are composed of eleven universities, eleven colleges, and three institutes. This is in addition to three private universities, five private colleges, and six theological colleges. There are also an extensive number of private career institutes and colleges.
  In 2007, the population of British Columbia stood at 4,383,000. Approximately 433,000 people were enrolled in public post-secondary institutions in BC during the 2006–2007 academic year. More than 17,250 identified themselves as Aboriginal students and approximately 10,500 were international students. In the 2011 calendar year, 151,774 applications took place through BCcampus, a publicly funded organization whose role is to support higher education by providing leadership in the use of ICT.
  Each of the province's post-secondary institutions sets its own admission requirements. Generally, successful graduation from high school, with the required academic prerequisites, is needed for admission to programs. Special consideration may be given to mature applicants, Aboriginal peoples, and people with disabilities.
context_section_description: Financial assistance for students attending post-secondary institutions in British Columbia can be either from government or private sources.  The government administers a variety of student assistance programs for Canadian citizens, protected persons, and permanent residents.  Both loans and grants are available for qualified full-time and part-time students.  Such loans include Canada Student Loans and British Columbia Student Loans. Students also may be eligible for Canada Student Grants, depending upon their financial need and personal circumstances.
  BC Awards Online is a collection of scholarships, bursaries, and awards for British Columbia secondary students planning to attend a post-secondary institution in British Columbia.  Other resources include Studentawards.com, a database of  scholarships, bursaries, grants and fellowships operated by an online advertising and market research data collection company, ScholarshipsCanada.com (operated by EDge Interactive, a student recruitment company), and while searches can be tailored to focus on British Columbia, both websites require registration and personal information for access to the databases.
  For Aboriginal students, resources are available at First Nations Education Steering Committee's Scholarships and Bursaries and the federal government's Aboriginal Bursary System. For students with disabilities, resources are available at National Educational Association of Disabled Students. The federal government also has listings for British Columbia in a section of its web-site dedicated to youth, Scholarships and Bursaries. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) manages more than 150 scholarship programs on behalf of the federal government, domestic and foreign agencies, and private sector companies. International students with a permit to study in Canada are usually qualified to apply for entrance or transfer scholarships, and they should contact their intended institution's awards and financial assistance office for further information.
  There are also a wide variety of scholarships and bursaries for all types and levels of students, many provided through corporations, private organizations, and individual donors that are associated with a particular institution and information about these financial awards are available from the awards and financial services at each institution.
caption: Gustavson School Of Business University of Victoria
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