Alberta Student Loans: How Student Aid Alberta Works

Alberta student loans come from Student Aid Alberta, the Government of Alberta’s student aid program. One application assesses you for Alberta student loans and grants and for Canada student loans and grants at the same time, but you leave school with two separate debts: the Alberta loan is managed in Alberta’s own MyLoan account, and the Canada loan through the National Student Loans Service Centre. The Alberta loan charges no interest while you study and for 12 months after you leave school; after that it charges CIBC’s prime rate. The Canada loan has charged no interest since April 1, 2023.

This guide covers what is specific to Alberta: the Alberta grants, how much you can borrow, the interest rule, the provincial scholarships, and how repayment and Alberta’s own repayment assistance work. The student loans hub compares the rules in every province.

Two loans, two sets of rules

Most Alberta students receive both loans, and they don’t follow the same schedule:

Alberta extended its grace period from six months to 12 months as of July 1, 2023, and the longer period covers students who finished their studies on or after December 1, 2022. Students who left school before that date started repaying their Alberta loan six months after leaving. The NSLSC account guide covers the federal side: logging in, the loan agreement and payments.

Interest on the Alberta portion

Once repayment begins, interest on an Alberta student loan is added to the balance monthly. By default the rate floats with the prime rate set by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, so the rate on your loan moves whenever CIBC changes its prime rate. You can ask the Alberta Student Aid Service Centre to switch to a fixed rate once; the fixed rate is CIBC prime on the date you ask, and it stays until the loan is paid off. Your current rate is shown in MyLoan.

Both rates were cut to prime on July 1, 2023. Before that, the floating rate was CIBC prime plus 1% and the fixed rate was CIBC prime plus 2%. Because the Canada loan is interest-free, the Alberta loan is the part of the debt that grows while it sits unpaid; the guide to paying off student loans covers extra payments and the tax credit for interest paid.

Alberta grants

Grants don’t have to be repaid unless your eligibility changes (for example, if you drop to part-time or withdraw). You don’t apply for them separately: Student Aid Alberta considers every full-time applicant for the grants they qualify for.

• Alberta Student Grant for Full-time Students: up to $425 a month, to an annual maximum of $5,100, for students whose income is below the thresholds the Alberta government sets. Student Aid Alberta gives the average award as $3,400 a year, and the grant budget is limited each year.
• Alberta Grant for Students with Disabilities: up to $3,000 a year for services and equipment.

The same application also assesses you for the federal grants, including the Canada Student Grant for Full-time Students (up to $4,200 for 2026-27). The Canada Student Grant guide explains each federal grant, including those for students with dependants and students with disabilities. From August 1, 2026, the federal full-time grant is limited to students at public and not-for-profit institutions, but Student Aid Alberta still assesses students at private for-profit schools for Alberta loans and grants. The provincial student grants guide compares Alberta’s grants with the other provinces'.

How much you can borrow

Student Aid Alberta caps the combined Alberta and Canada loans you can receive each year and the total you can owe at any one time. For a bachelor’s degree, certificate, diploma or journeyperson program, the annual limits are:

Graduate and some professional programs have higher limits. The lifetime limit, the most you can owe in Alberta and Canada student loans combined, is $85,000 for undergraduate programs of two years or more and $51,000 for one-year programs, rising to $125,000 for graduate studies and $150,000 for law, MBA and doctoral studies. Paying down your balance frees up room under the lifetime limit. In some cases you can ask for up to $8,500 above the annual limit, such as costs outside your control or the final year of a degree.

Who qualifies

To get Alberta student loans and grants, you must:

• be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person (students with a study permit can’t get Alberta student aid);
• be a resident of Alberta;
• have a calculated financial need; and
• take at least 60% of a full course load at an approved post-secondary institution, or 40% if you have a documented disability.

Your school decides what counts as a full course load. Need is your assessed costs minus the money you and, depending on your situation, your parents or spouse are expected to contribute; the OSAP guide explains how that kind of assessment works and when a student counts as independent. Part-time study has its own loan and grant rules on Student Aid Alberta’s site, and its online Student Financial Assistance Estimator gives a rough figure before you apply.

Alberta scholarships

Alberta Student Aid administers two provincial scholarships that many students receive. Neither comes through the student aid application:

• Alexander Rutherford Scholarship: up to $2,500 for high school marks, based on the average of five designated courses in at least one of grades 10, 11 and 12. It is paid from the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund. You apply online once your official transcript is available and you’re enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or apprenticeship program, and it can be awarded only once.
• Jason Lang Scholarship: $1,000 for students in the second or later year of an undergraduate or professional program at a publicly funded Alberta institution who had a grade point average of at least 3.5 and at least 80% of a full course load in the previous fall and winter terms. The school’s awards office nominates eligible students, and a student can receive it up to three times.

Student Aid Alberta’s scholarships section lists the other provincial awards and their criteria.

Repaying an Alberta student loan

Repayment on the Alberta loan begins 12 months after you leave school, and MyLoan sets up a monthly schedule automatically. The standard term depends on how much you owe:

You can change the payment date or amount in MyLoan, or switch to biweekly or weekly payments by calling the service centre, and you can pay extra at any time. Payments are made by online banking (the payee is Alberta Student Loan, with your Alberta Student Loan number as the account number) or by cheque or money order payable to the Government of Alberta. The Canada loan starts 6 months after you leave school and is paid through the NSLSC. The student loan repayment calculator estimates the monthly payment and payoff time for a given balance and rate.

Alberta’s own repayment assistance

Alberta runs its own Repayment Assistance Plan for Alberta student loans, alongside the federal plan for Canada student loans. If you have both loans, one application through your NSLSC account considers you for both, and any reduced payment is split between the two loans. The two plans use different income thresholds, so a borrower can qualify for one and not the other, or have different approval periods. Alberta RAP is approved for up to six months at a time, and you reapply to continue.

A few Alberta rules differ from the federal plan. Borrowers who live outside Canada can’t get federal RAP on their Canada loans but can apply for Alberta RAP on their provincial loans, by contacting the Alberta Student Aid Service Centre or using the paper application. Alberta RAP isn’t available on an Alberta loan that has been returned to the government after a default, or on a loan included in a bankruptcy. The Repayment Assistance Plan guide explains how the federal plan’s payment cap and stages work, and the guide to what happens if you can’t pay a student loan covers missed payments and default.

Contacts

• Alberta Student Aid Service Centre (applications, Alberta loans, MyLoan, Alberta RAP): 1-855-606-2096, toll-free in North America.
• National Student Loans Service Centre (Canada loans and the RAP application): 1-888-815-4514.

For what a program will cost before aid, see how much university costs in Canada; tuition you pay also counts toward the federal tuition tax credit.