Financial assistance for students attending post-secondary institutions in British Columbia can be either from government or private sources. The government administers a variety of student assistance programs for Canadian citizens, protected persons, and permanent residents. Both loans and grants are available for qualified full-time and part-time students. Such loans include Canada Student Loans and British Columbia Student Loans. Students also may be eligible for Canada Student Grants, depending upon their financial need and personal circumstances.
BC Awards Online is a collection of scholarships, bursaries, and awards for British Columbia secondary students planning to attend a post-secondary institution in British Columbia. Other resources include Studentawards.com, a database of scholarships, bursaries, grants and fellowships operated by an online advertising and market research data collection company, ScholarshipsCanada.com (operated by EDge Interactive, a student recruitment company), and while searches can be tailored to focus on British Columbia, both websites require registration and personal information for access to the databases.
For Aboriginal students, resources are available at First Nations Education Steering Committee's Scholarships and Bursaries and the federal government's Aboriginal Bursary System. For students with disabilities, resources are available at National Educational Association of Disabled Students. The federal government also has listings for British Columbia in a section of its web-site dedicated to youth, Scholarships and Bursaries. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) manages more than 150 scholarship programs on behalf of the federal government, domestic and foreign agencies, and private sector companies. International students with a permit to study in Canada are usually qualified to apply for entrance or transfer scholarships, and they should contact their intended institution's awards and financial assistance office for further information.
There are also a wide variety of scholarships and bursaries for all types and levels of students, many provided through corporations, private organizations, and individual donors that are associated with a particular institution and information about these financial awards are available from the awards and financial services at each institution.