1,500 Alberta Student Aid applications from last school year are still under review

The province says it continues to workthrough delays in processingAlberta Student Aid applications from the 2020-21 school year that were put under review, but there are still at least 1,500 left andmany students have already completed their programs.

Back in March,students began reporting instances of delayed disbursement of student aid funds. In April, CBC News learned thatthousands of student applications that had initially been approved hadsince been put under review.

Thatmeant none of them were receiving any of the student aid funds they'd previously been promised, and neither were the institutions they were enrolled with.

"I'm stressed out because I don't know what to do anymore I cannot afford to pay it from my own pocket, the tuition," Qcom College of Technology student Michelle Duka said at the time.

16% increase in applications

In an Augustinterview with CBC News, Alberta's Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaidessaidthere was a 16 per cent increase in applications for student aid last school year.

"I think we need to take a closer look at what's driving the increase," he said.

"I think as part of the pandemicthere could be a higher proportion of people who are going back to reskill and retrain looking for different opportunities. Also, I would imagine, you know, the shift to an online environment may be contributing to the increase in applications."

Nicolaides said even though many applications had been given approval for student aid, roughly 5,000 out of about 120,000 applications were eventually identified as needing further review.

1,500 remain under review

"We've wrapped up the vast majority of them," he said. "There is approximately 1,500 left to process. The team has been working really hard and through the challenges of the pandemic."

The minister said of those that were reviewed, the majority have ultimately been cleared.

"There's no issues, and funding has been or will be delivered, if it hasn't been, very shortly," he said.

"I understand their frustration. But I also ask and thank them for their patience becausegiven the significant increase in applications it's made the process a little bit more challenging."

The province said it does not track thenumber of applications that changed statusdue to the review process.

"I would say maybe 10 to 15 per cent may not proceed due to incomplete data or another environment where funding may not be provided, if the data is contradictory, and then, of course, that raises a question," he said.

Denied applicants have 60 days to appeal

In an email,Qcom student Alma Samson said she was one of those deniedafter initially being approved for funding.

Samson completed her medical assistance program in the springbut was told in August that following areview she was ineligible.

"A missing information letter was emailed to your Alberta Student Aid account requesting you provide supporting documentation to verify the information provided on your application," reads and email from Alberta Student Aid. "Our records show that youprovided somebut not all of the information that was requested."

It goes on to say that as a result, she was ineligible, and any funding that had not been provided would be cancelled.

Samsonand other denied students were informed they had 60 days to request a review of the decision.

"The agent told methat I have to re-upload again my documents with the birth certificate of my child and write a letter to review my application. But they have no assurance if the SA will be approved or not," said Samson.

Nicolaides said he doesn't anticipate these delays affecting student aid disbursements this year.

"I don't anticipate students to see major disruptions coming into the upcoming academic year. It should be pretty close to back-to-normal environment in terms of our operation."