With tuition refunds for some, Ontario college students anxiously head back to class

As Ontario students prepare to go back to class on Tuesday after five weeks away, Ontario is shedding light on how they will be compensated for lost time in the classroom.

Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews saidMonday that students who decide to withdraw from the semester because of the strike will receive a full tuition refund.

• Ontario college students worried over condensed semester as 5-week strike ends

"I'm hoping that the vast majority of students will see what they've already invested, stay on the path, but there will be some who are just done and we want to offer them a full tuition refund because this wasn't their fault," Matthews told CBCToronto's Dwight Drummond.

All full-time students will also be eligible to receive up to $500 for unexpected costs such aschild-care fees, rentand re-booked transit tickets, which Matthews said will come out of the money the colleges saved bynot paying faculty during the strike.

Ontario Student Assistance Programaid, or OSAP,will also be extended into December to accommodate extended semesters, she said.

'We're getting short-changed'

The promises come a day after the Ontario legislature pushed through an act that ended the college strike, leaving students anxious aboutnavigating dramatically condensed semesters.

"We feel as though nothing got accomplished. And I'm feeling very anxious about going back tomorrow," said Fanshawe College student representativeCate Foulan on CBCRadio's Here and Now.

Foulan is part of a group of students launching a class action lawsuit against Ontario's colleges, which she says will go forward despite the back-to-work legislation.

George Brown College student Don Flynnsays he is"nervous" about how his grades willfare and how he willmake up time at his workplace placement.

"They'regoing to cram it all in. We're getting short-changed," he toldCBCToronto."I was actually going to quit," Flynn said, but added that he's going back to class because he ultimately decided he had worked too hard to get where he was.

Looking for more

It's people like Flynn that HumberCollege student Greg Kung had hoped would be receiving reimbursements.

Kung co-authored a petition, now signed by nearly 140,000 people, which demandedtuition refunds for every school day missed, regardless of whether or not students choose to withdraw.

Kung told CBC Toronto he was pleased that students who wish to withdraw won't face the "big burden" of lost tuition, but he says his classmates who planned oncontinuingtheir studies deservemore.

"There are a majority of students who did face a significant cost during the five weeks and are not going to be seeing any of that money."

He says while the $500 being offered would help,he'd like more information on the application process and"who will actually be getting the money in the end."

Fouran has similar doubts, callingthe offer of up to$500 a "joke."

"Essentially, if we all register for this $500, we will all be getting $10back," she said, adding that she knows a student who had spent $1,600 on daycare bills since the strike began.

"Five hundred dollarsbarely makes a dent in her daycare bill, let alone anything else," she said.

The full press release from the Ministry of Advanced Education is available here.