One in Three (33%) BC Parents Not Saving for Their Children's Post-Secondary Education

Vancouver, BC - One in three (33%) parents in British Columbia are not setting anything aside for their children's post-secondary education, a new Ipsos study on behalf of the Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation has found.

At the same time, many BC parents are unaware just how costly a basic Bachelor of Arts degree can be in the province - as much as $32,575 when student fees and books are factored in. While six in ten (59%) parents can correctly identify this as the cost of a basic BA, the remaining four in ten (40%) think it's actually less than this.

Combined with this relative lack of awareness of education costs at the post-secondary level is less than full clarity about the Registered Education Savings Plan, or RESP. While both the federal government and the BC government provide parents with grant money (that doesn't need to be repaid) on investing in an RESP, only half (47%) of BC parents say they're aware of all the grants offered in exchange for buying RESPs.

Many Anticipate Borrowing and Debts to Help Fund Children's Post-Secondary Education

Four in five (82%) BC parents `agree' (61% strongly/21% somewhat) that they expect their child to attend some form of post-secondary school, whether a university, college, trade school or other academic institution. With high expectations for post-secondary education, and a majority (68%) agreeing (23% strongly/45% somewhat) that `as a parent, I should be paying for my child's post-secondary education,' many parents are anticipating financial challenges ahead. For instance:

• Six in ten (59%) agree (32% strongly/27% somewhat) they have or will encourage their child to pursue their post-secondary studies near home because of costs;
• Four in ten (42%) agree (17% strongly/24% somewhat) they will need to borrow money or go into debt to help their child;
• One in three (32%) agree (11% strongly/21% somewhat) they will need to dip into their retirement fund or delay retirement because their child will be in too much debt after going to university/college.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 29 and September 2, 2016, on behalf of the Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation. For this survey, a sample of 395 parents of children aged 17 and under in British Columbia from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting160was then160employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval.160 In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 5.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all parents in BC been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Kyle Braid
Senior Vice President
(778) 373-5130
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com