Transit passes will be added to the list of fees that post-secondary students cannot opt out of, Colleges and Universities Minister Merrilee Fullerton announced Friday.

“After hearing from stakeholders, it is clear that transit passes need to be considered mandatory under our Student Choice Initiative,” she tweeted. “Ontario students need to have safe access to campus, work, and home.”

Last month, Fullerton announced a 10 per cent tuition cut and changes to the student aid system, eliminating the “free tuition” initiative and reverting to a grant-and-loan program targeting needy students.

At the same time, she said the province is putting an end to the “ancillary fees” students pay, which can add as much as $2,000 a year to post-secondary costs.

Ancillary fees, which are mandatory, cover on-campus activities and clubs, including students government.

Fullerton said the only ones students would be forced to cover would be for those supporting health and wellness, or mental health — including athletics, walksafe programs or counselling and career services.

But student groups, which have a number of concerns about the changes, had argued that in the case of discounted transit passes, they must be purchased in bulk.

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, which represents 150,000 post-secondary students, thanked Fullerton for listening to students, tweeting “this is a great step to making sure students can access essential services, however, there are several concerns & questions that remain unanswered. We’re hopeful the gov’t will continue to listen to students.”

Fullerton had said that the tuition cut and giving students a choice in which fees they pay amount to “significant savings.”

The College Student Alliance has also warned that without fees, student unions will be “effectively destroyed.”

“Student unions have become more than a just a vehicle for advocacy — they provide students with essential services and supports, improve the affordability of post-secondary education and provide experiential learning opportunities that help students develop skills to enter the workforce,” said the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance.