Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation

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The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is a private, independent organization created by an act of the Parliament of Canada in 1998. It received an initial endowment of $2.5 billion from the federal government to provide awards annually for ten years. The foundation distributes $325 million in the form of bursaries and scholarships each year throughout Canada in support of post-secondary education. As well, the foundation conducts research into post-secondary access, via the Millennium Research Program.

1 Overview
2 Future
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Overview

The foundation's objectives are to improve access to post-secondary education for all Canadians, especially those facing economic or social barriers; to encourage a high level of student achievement and engagement in Canadian society; and to build a national alliance of organizations and individuals around a shared post-secondary agenda.

Since 2000, the Foundation has delivered more than half a million bursaries and scholarships worth more than $1.5 billion to students across Canada. Its two best-known scholarship programs are:

The Millennium Bursary Program, which targets students with the greatest financial need.
The Millennium Excellence Award Program, which provides scholarships based on merit (including both academic achievement and community service). Separate sets of awards are provided to entrance and in-course post-secondary students.

[edit] Future

The foundation's endowment is expected to run out in 2009. Canada's two largest national post-secondary student organizations, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), have taken two dramatically different views on the fund's future. While CASA fully endorses the foundation's renewal, on the basis that non-renewal would constitute a significant cut to student financial assistance,^[1] the CFS has called for the organization to be replaced with a system of grants based purely on financial need.^[2] It is, however, also possible that the foundation will not be renewed (or replaced) at all.