Student loans in Quebec
Aide financiere aux etudes, what the Quebec half of your loan charges in interest, how the grace period works, and how repayment assistance is assessed.
- 4.95%Interest on the Quebec portion
- NoneInterest on the federal portion, since April 2023
- 6 monthsGrace period, and interest accrues
How the money reaches you
Runs its own programme and issues no Canada Student Grants or Loans at all.
The programme is Aide financiere aux etudes.
Interest on the provincial half
4.95%
Bank of Canada prime plus half a percent. A fixed rate can be negotiated with the lending bank.
Interest accrues during your grace period
This is one of the few places in Canadian student lending where capitalization still bites. Interest builds through the 6-month grace period and is added to the principal at the end of it, so you start repayment owing more than you borrowed. What that costs.
Repayment assistance
The Deferred Payment Plan, in renewable six-month periods to a lifetime maximum of 60 months. The government pays the interest during it and you never repay that interest.
Worth knowing
- Quebec runs its own programme and receives no Canada Student Grants or Loans at all. A student here is outside the federal system entirely.
- The loan is held by a private bank rather than by government. Desjardins, BMO, Laurentian, National Bank and RBC participate; the government guarantees the loan and pays the interest during studies.
- Interest accrues during the six-month grace period. Leaving it unpaid capitalizes it into the loan.
- The debt remission programme reduces study debt by 15% for a student who received a bursary every year and finished on time, with the timelines set by programme.
- Interest is claimed through Revenu Quebec rather than on the federal return.
What it costs to study here
The average Canadian undergraduate in Quebec paid $3,963.00 in tuition for 2025/2026.
| Field of study | Tuition |
|---|---|
| Dentistry | $5,575.00 |
| Humanities | $4,684.00 |
| Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies | $4,566.00 |
| Medicine | $4,538.00 |
| Mathematics, computer and information sciences | $4,501.00 |
| Physical and life sciences and technologies | $4,225.00 |
| Social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies | $4,178.00 |
| Law | $4,161.00 |
Sources
- Repaying your student loan, Gouvernement du Quebec. Checked on . Backs the rate at prime plus half a percent; that the loan is held by a participating financial institution; the grace period and the capitalization of grace period interest.
- Deferred payment plan, Gouvernement du Quebec. Checked on . Backs the six-month renewable periods and the 60-month lifetime maximum.
- Repayment Assistance Plan, Employment and Social Development Canada. Checked on . Backs the federal zero-payment monthly income thresholds by family size; the 10% cap on the affordable payment; the six-month application period; the 15-year horizon, and 10 years for a borrower with a disability.
- Pay back OSAP, Government of Ontario. Checked on . Backs Ontario's separate zero-payment thresholds; Ontario's 20% cap on the affordable payment; the Stage 1 and Stage 2 structure; interest on the Ontario portion at prime plus one percent.
- The Repayment Assistance Plan (backgrounder), Employment and Social Development Canada. Checked on . Backs the reduction of the affordable payment cap from 20% to 10% in November 2022.
- Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs survey (record 3123), Statistics Canada. Figures describe 2025/2026. Collected automatically on , so nobody checked this row by hand.
Checked on .