New Brunswick Student Loans: Grants, Bursaries, Interest and Repayment

New Brunswick student loans have charged no interest since November 1, 2022, and the federal Canada Student Loan part has charged 0% since April 1, 2023, so an integrated Canada-New Brunswick loan is interest-free on both parts. Interest charged on a New Brunswick loan before November 1, 2022 still has to be repaid, through the normal payments.

New Brunswick’s Student Financial Services branch administers student aid. With one application each year, students are considered for loans, grants and bursaries from both governments. This page covers what New Brunswick adds and how repayment works; how the provinces compare is on the student loans hub.

What a full-time student can get

How much you actually receive depends on your financial situation, the length of your program, tuition and the number of dependants. (Source: Government of New Brunswick, full-time students.) The federal grants, including those for students with disabilities and students with dependants, are covered in the Canada Student Grants guide.

New Brunswick’s own grants

Renewed Tuition Bursary. It pays part of tuition for students enrolled full-time in an undergraduate degree, diploma or certificate program at a public or private university or college located in New Brunswick. You must apply for student aid and qualify for federal and provincial funding, meet the program’s income thresholds, and stay within its yearly maximum and its lifetime limit (three academic years for college programs, four for most university programs, counting tuition bursaries received since 2016).

New Brunswick Bursary. It is for full-time students whose assessed need is greater than the maximum student loans available, studying at a New Brunswick school or a public post-secondary school outside the province.

(Source: Government of New Brunswick, 2026-2027 Student Financial Assistance Handbook.) Grants in other provinces are compared in the provincial student grants guide.

The province’s current student aid handbook lists no tuition rebate for graduates and no separate free-tuition program: the Renewed Tuition Bursary is its tuition support.

Repaying a New Brunswick student loan

Repayment starts six months after you leave your studies, whether you graduated, switched to part-time, withdrew or took time off that isn’t an approved medical or parental leave. Your full-time Canada and New Brunswick loans are combined into one amount with one repayment schedule, managed by the National Student Loans Service Centre. Unless you arrange a different schedule, the first payment is due on the last day of the seventh month after you left school: someone who finished at the end of April has a non-repayment period from May 1 to October 31 and a first payment due November 30. Part-time loans and loans from other provinces are repaid separately. (Source: Government of New Brunswick, repaying your student loans.)

You can change the payment amount, date and bank account in your NSLSC account, explained in the NSLSC account guide. Extra payments are allowed at any time, even while you’re in school, and with no interest on either part they only shorten the loan. The student loan repayment calculator shows how long a balance takes at a given payment.

If payments become hard to afford

New Brunswick borrowers use the federal options for the whole integrated loan:

• Revision of terms: anyone can change the payment amount and term, whatever their debt or income.
• The Repayment Assistance Plan and its version for borrowers with disabilities: payments based on family income and family size, which can be $0, applied for in your NSLSC account and approved six months at a time.

A loan that isn’t repaid can lead to tax refunds being withheld, loss of access to repayment assistance and no further student aid; the steps are in what happens if you can’t pay your student loan. Federal forgiveness for doctors, nurses, teachers and other occupations in rural communities is in student loan forgiveness in Canada.