Socioeconomic background

Access to financial resources

A high percentage of students (86%) have access to financial resources for tuition and living expenses.
Support from family, work income and personal savings are the principal sources of student income. To a lesser extent, some students have access to provincial government funding, Concordia scholarships and bursaries or income from a job as part of a for-credit academic program.
Students under 25 years old are more likely to receive financial support from their family (79%), while 63% of students aged between 25 and 34-years old work to cover tuition and living expenses. Older students (55 years old or more) are more likely to have access to personal savings to cover expenses during their studies (77%).

A significant proportion of students (10%) mentioned not having access to financial resources for tuition and living expenses. This is especially true among students who are refugees (23%), aged 45 to 54 years old (21%), caregivers (15%), parents or legal guardians (14%), graduate students (13%), respondents with a temporary resident status (12%) or those who are a member of a linguistic minority group (12%).
40% of students who have access to financial resources report that the money completely covers their tuition and living expenses, while 25% state that their financial resources moderately cover their expenses and another 25% report weak coverage of their tuition and living expenses.
Among students who report that their current financial resources weakly cover their expenses, they include permanent residents (37%), those with temporary resident status (32%), parents (35%), caregivers (35%), members of a linguistic minority group (34%), racialized persons (32%) and members of a religious or faith community (31%).

30% of students have financed their studies through government loans. A lower percentage have done so through private loans. Women, members of a gender-diverse community, members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, racialized persons, students who are a member of a linguistic minority group or persons with a disability or impairment are more likely to have financed their studies through government loans.
Parents and caregivers present higher proportions of usage for both types of loans.

51% of students are currently employed, excluding all types of paid work that is part of a for-credit academic program such as an internship, co-op, etc.
Women (54%), Canadian citizens (56%) and undergraduate students (52%) are more likely to have a job.
Employment proportions are lower among men (47%), respondents with a temporary resident status (35%), graduate students (46%) and those who are a member of a linguistic minority group (49%).
Half of all employed students work between 10 and 25 hours a week. Most of them work during weekdays, and 50% during weekends.
A significant proportion work on weeknights, while a similar proportion have variable schedules. Part-time students and students under 25 years old are more likely to work over 25 hours a week (54% and 76%, respectively) whereas the majority of full-time students (80%) work 25 hours or less a week.
Respondents aged 25 to 54 are more likely to work more than 35 hours a week (29% to 55%).

Among working students, more than 50% consider that their job interferes with their ability to study and/or complete academic exams or assignments.
Racialized persons (57%), parents or caregivers (64%), persons with a disability or impairment (66%), part-time students (60%) and members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities (60%) are more likely to report that their job interferes with their academic success.