Research Note Series Part of the mission of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is to improve access to post-secondary education so that Canadians can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to participate in a changing economy and society. [...] In its first year, the average “ In short, of even part of their aid in the form of a non- recipient of either bursary (they are treated debt matters repayable grant has a positive impact on as one remission program for the purpose of and measures their persistence. [...] As Figure 5 McElroy explored possible reasons other indicates, the proportion of “leavers” dropped than the bursaries themselves to explain by 10 percentage points following the intro- the improved persistence among the “millen- duction of the bursary. [...] The for subsequent years of study, were more introduction of the millennium bursary prior likely to reach their fourth year than those to the 1999–2000 academic year allowed for who pursued studies of more than two years the expansion of the existing B. C. grant pro- prior to its introduction. [...] Figure 8 demonstrates $15 Students who reached 2nd year the degree of unmet need among students $0 Students who did not reach 2nd year in four-year programs.12 While students who continued from first to second year had lower Pre-Millennium Millennium levels of unmet need, the presence of more stu- dents with high levels of unmet need likely served to mute the overall effect of the grants.