Third-Party Sponsorship

Information for Students

If you are being sponsored by a First Nations band or Indigenous organization, you will be going through the Third-Party Sponsorship process.

Sponsorship Tuition Payment

You will receive automatic emails from Laurier with a countdown for tuition deadlines. If you have confirmed sponsorship, your sponsoring agency will settle your tuition after the last day to add/drop courses (two to three weeks after the start of the term).

Your LORIS account will show late fees after the due date but these late fees will be adjusted based on the sponsorship.

However, if you have any fees on your account that are not covered by your band, you must pay these on time or you will have to pay the late fees. Some examples include Health and Dental fees, or online textbooks that can get caught in the late fees.

Student Invoices

As a student you will have a copy of your invoice that shows all your fees – including those that are not covered by your band. If you band is requesting a copy of your student invoice, be sure to let them know that as long as they have completed the Sponsorship Process, they will be invoiced directly from Laurier.

LORIS Account Help

If you need help with your LORIS account, your first stop should be the Indigenous Student Support Coordinator (ISSC) for your campus! The ISSC are trained to work through Band Sponsorship Policies and have great connections with Service Laurier to assist with complex cases.

Accessing Bookstore Credits

When accessing your Bookstore credit you can head to the bookstore to retrieve your necessary course materials. When you’re ready to check out at the cash register, simply let the staff member know that they are a sponsored student. Staff will confirm that you are on the recipient list of sponsored students in order to complete the checkout process.

Apply for OSAP

Although you are receiving financial support from your organization, it is still important to understand how the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) can benefit you!

• Provides you with opportunities to apply for student aid in the form of both a grant and loan.
• Provides you with experiences that students who do not apply for OSAP are ineligible for.
• You are not required to take any of the funds you are given, although you can choose to just take a portion (i.e. take the grant, but refuse the loan).
• Access grants and awards that are not available through the scholarships and bursaries application at Laurier including the Laurier Tuition Bursary and the Student Access Guarantee Bursary Program.

Fund Disbursement

Due to the timing of sponsorship processing for tuition, you will have outstanding fees at the time that OSAP is distributed. If you are receiving OSAP, you will notice that your funds are automatically applied to your account at Laurier, appearing to contribute to the fees that your sponsorship will cover.

The sponsorship processing date is approximately two weeks after OSAP distribution, therefore you need to be aware that you will be able to request your OSAP funds as a direct deposit to your personal bank accounts after your sponsorship has been processed (typically the third week of September). You can receive instructions and support for this process by contacting your ISSC.

Changes to Your Program and Course Registration

If you make changes to your program and course registration, you must tell your band. Each sponsoring agency has different policies and procedures for changes to student registration and programs. You do not want to make changes to your registration without prior approval from your band because this could jeopardize your living allowance or future sponsorship. Your ISSC is here to help you with these conversations if you’d like!