Aboriginal leaders, university and college officials and, most of all, students are worrying about a review by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada of the Post-Secondary Student Support Program.

They fear that INAC will decide to transfer control of $314 million in student grants for First Nations university and college students to the Canada Student Loans Program which is administered by provinces.

Currently, status First Nations have constitutional rights granting them access to federal funding for education. Money is distributed by individual bands, but no student is guaranteed funding.

The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation said in a 2008 report that Aboriginal students prefer grant-based education funding through their bands to repayable financial assistance.

INAC admitted the review was underway in late December. A few months earlier, the Canadian Federation of Students called on the federal government to help out with what it said was “massive student debt” that was more than $13 billion.