How AFE Calculates Your Bursary Versus Loan Amount

The two-step calculation

AFE (Aide financiere aux etudes) builds your award in two steps. First it works out how much you need. Second it decides how much of that need arrives as a loan versus a bursary. According to AFE's own description of the calculation , the amount of aid considers your personal situation, the expenses tied to your studies, and any financial contribution expected from you or your family.

Step one: assessed need

Admissible expenses cover the costs AFE recognizes for your program: tuition and mandatory fees, housing, food, transportation, books and supplies, and additional allowances if you support a dependent. From that total, AFE subtracts your own resources, which include your income above an exempted amount, your savings, and any scholarship or other aid you already hold. If you are assessed as a dependent student, a parental contribution is factored in. If you have a spouse, a spousal contribution applies instead. What remains after these subtractions is your assessed need for the academic year.

Step two: loan first, then bursary

AFE pays your assessed need as a loan first, up to a ceiling set for your level of study. Once your assessed need reaches that ceiling, any additional amount you are assessed for arrives as a bursary instead of a loan. The bursary portion is non-repayable, while the loan portion is a debt you start repaying after your studies end, the same as a student loan from any other province.

This structure means the size of your bursary depends directly on how far your assessed need exceeds the loan ceiling, not on a separate merit or need-based bursary application. You do not apply for the bursary portion separately from the loan. Both come out of the same single AFE assessment.

Where to get your actual numbers

The exact loan ceiling and expense allowances change by education level and by academic year, so treat any figure you find outside your own file as a rough guide. AFE's full-time studies program page references a calculation simulator that gives you a personalized estimate based on your own income, family situation and program, before you commit to a full application. Run your own numbers through that simulator rather than relying on a friend's award as a guide, since a small difference in dependent status, income or program length changes both your assessed need and your loan-to-bursary split.

What changes your split year to year

Reapply every academic year, since your assessed need is recalculated from scratch each time. A change in your income, your family's income, your marital status, or whether you now support a dependent all shift both halves of the calculation, sometimes moving you from a loan-heavy package one year to a bursary-heavy package the next.

A concrete way to picture the calculation

Picture your admissible expenses as one running total and your resources as a second total that gets subtracted from it. If your resources cover most of your expenses, your assessed need stays small and your funding likely stays entirely inside the loan portion, below the ceiling. If your resources cover only a small share of your expenses, your assessed need grows larger, and once it passes the loan ceiling, the extra amount arrives as bursary money instead of adding further to your loan.

Parental versus spousal contribution

AFE applies a parental contribution when you are assessed as a dependent student, generally reflecting your household situation as a recent secondary school graduate. It applies a spousal contribution instead when you have a spouse or common-law partner, looking at your partner's income and resources rather than your parents'. You cannot have both a parental and a spousal contribution counted at once, since AFE treats you as either a dependent or independent applicant for a given academic year, not both.

If your situation changes mid-year

Report a change in income, family status, or living situation to AFE as soon as it happens rather than waiting for your next annual application. A job loss, a new dependent, or a change in your marital status can shift your assessed need and your loan-to-bursary split partway through an academic year, and AFE can reassess you based on the updated information rather than making you wait for the following year to see the change reflected.

Full-time versus part-time calculations

The two-step calculation above applies to full-time studies. Part-time students go through a related but separate AFE assessment, with its own expense allowances and its own approach to how loan and bursary amounts get split. Confirm which AFE stream applies to you based on your actual course load each term, since a change between full-time and part-time status partway through the year moves you into a different set of rules.

Keep your calculation current

Update AFE with any change in your income, address, program or family situation as soon as it happens rather than only at your annual renewal. An outdated file can leave you underfunded for months if your real assessed need has grown, or can create an overpayment you have to repay later if your resources increased and you did not report the change.