OTTAWA--Student financial assistance is woefully inadequate to overcome barriers to access to post-secondary education, according to theMillennium Scholarship Foundation's annual research compendium.

"Funding for student aid has not kept pace with skyrocketing costs. Access to education is threatened because federal grants are outpaced by tuition fee increases," said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. "Low and Current levels of student financial assistance are woefully inadequate to overcome barriers in access to post-secondary education, according to the Millennium Scholarship Foundation's annual research compendium released today.

"Funding for student financial aid has failed to keep pace with skyrocketing tuition fees," said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. "Low and modest income families have been largely shut-out of the system."Although in the last decade tuition fees have increased at more than twice than the rate of inflation, federal funding for student financial assistance has remained largely frozen. This gap has contributed to a persistent under-representation of low- and modest-income students on university campuses. According to the study, families in the top income quartile are more than twice as likely as families in the bottom, to attend university.

"The federal government has taken an important step towards improving access to post-secondary education by implementing a national system of up-front grants, but that's only half of the equation," said Katherine Giroux-Bougard. "The federal government must work with the provinces to reduce tuition fees."

In the 2008 federal budget the government opted not to renew the decade old Millennium Scholarship Foundation, instead replacing it with the publicly administered Canada Student Grants Program.The Canadian Federation of Students is Canada's largest student organisation. It is composed of over 80 university and college students' associations with a combined membership of over one half million students in all ten provinces.