The province announced billions in new funding for Ontario’s colleges and universities Thursday, along with the end of a years-long tuition freeze and changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program grant structure.
Ontario’s Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn said the “historic” $6.4-billion funding model — to be paid out over the next four years — will help institutions provide competitive programs, high standards of education and be “resilient” to growing demands in the future, he said.
“Our post-secondary institutions are the pipeline that builds our future workforce,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “These students will drive our economy in the future so we need to strengthen schools today.”
The announcement comes in response to a post-secondary financial crisis, following years of low levels of government funding, stagnant tuition levels and a sharp reduction in the number of international students.
Quinn said Ottawa’s international student cap created “unprecedented instability” in the post-secondary sector, along with growing pressure to continue providing high quality education.
But this announcement is just “window dressing,” said Liberal education critic John Fraser, and comes after schools have already cut crucial programs and nearly 10,000 staff members to manage funding challenges.
“I’m sick and tired of these dog and pony shows where we talk about ‘historic’ and ‘generational.’ Let’s get real, we all know this is not enough,” he said.
“The reality is [the province] starved colleges. They allowed colleges to rely on foreign students, because they didn’t have to take money out of the treasury.”
Peggy Sattler, the NDP’s shadow minister for colleges and universities, said the province’s announcement will further hurt young people who are already facing record-high unemployment.
“This is about the future of this province, and right now this government is actively making it harder for young people to build one,” she said.
OSAP changes will hit hard: student rep
While it’s great to have increased funding for schools, the same cannot be said for the changes to OSAP, said Sayak Sneddon-Ghosal, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Students Alliance.
The allocation of OSAP funding for eligible students in the new school year will be reduced to a maximum of 25 per cent for grants, with funding for loans increased to a minimum of 75 per cent.
Currently, students can receive a maximum of 85 per cent as grants — which do not have to be repaid — and a minimum of 15 per cent as loans that need to be paid back.
The shift in OSAP will likely impact long-term student debt, especially for middle and low-income learners, Bella Fischer, president of the College Student Alliance, said in an emailed statement.
A union representing public employees says nearly 10,000 full- and part-time workers at Ontario colleges have either lost their job in the last year or are about to. The union says most of the blame is on the provincial government’s lack of funding for colleges.
Sneddon-Ghosal said students already struggling with affordability will be impacted and that an incremental change — similar to the tuition hike — would’ve been better.
“We know that students generally are working part-time jobs and are navigating unaffordability kind of all over the place,” he said. “Adding this on top of that is really disappointing to see.”
Even though the tuition freeze is being lifted, he said that change will help “flood more money into the sector.”
But the move is being met with concern from some students.
“I know for a lot of brilliant minds out there tuition is a really big hurdle that they have to get over and I don’t think it’s justifiable to keep on raising [it],” said University of Toronto student Katelynn Chang.
Lola Sikking, a University of Toronto student from the U.S. who pays domestic tuition because she’s a dual citizen, said the increase reminds her of the American college system.
“If it helps maintain our campus and stay up with economic growth then it’s OK with me,” she said, “but two per cent every year would be a little insane.”
What will change with the new funding model?
The change in OSAP allocation will ensure the sustainability of the program as its budget has been quickly rising, Quinn said. Additionally, private career college students will only be eligible for loans through OSAP, he said.
“Let me be very clear, OSAP loans are not like standard bank loans,” said Quinn, adding students don’t accrue interest while in school and interest rates “are extremely low” upon graduation.
From the 2026-2027 school year, publicly-assisted colleges and universities will be able to raise tuition fees by up to two per cent per year for the next three years — which Quinn says is one of the lowest tuition increases in the country.
After that period of time, tuition fee increases will be limited to either two per cent or the average inflation rate, whichever is lower.
The additional funding also includes money for 70,000 more seats for in-demand programs, increased funding for programs that are more expensive for the schools to offer, and more per-student funding.
Higher average requirements and increased competition are leaving some Ontario high schoolers feeling “cooked” by the university admission process. CBC’s Nav Nanwa breaks down numbers that paint a stark picture of what it’s like to be a graduating student in the province right now.
School reps say tuition increases will ease pressure
But representatives from universities and colleges said the funding and ability to implement “modest” tuition-fee increases will ease the pressures they were facing.
“This new investment strengthens the very foundation our universities provide, greater sustainability and long-term planning to support our students and local communities,” said Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities.
Maureen Adamson, president of Colleges Ontario, said the changes are a “generational investment” that will help schools provide better programming for students, who will go on to strengthen communities.
“College graduates are the boots on the ground,” she said. “Skilled workers are needed more than ever and this funding increases regional opportunities for learners and employers alike.”
Melanie Woodin, president of the University of Toronto, said the university is “delighted” that the province is investing more into post-secondary institutions. Woodin maintained that in the face of the OSAP changes, the university will ensure that access to education remains affordable.
“We’re going to make sure we put the investments into student aid together with the OSAP contributions to make sure that education remains accessible and excellent at scale,” she said.
The funding is welcome, but comes “too little too late” as post-secondary schools are already strained “to the brink of collapse,” said JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).
“It’s hard to recover from two decades of underfunding all at once, but that’s where we need to be going if we want a stable, G7-leading sector — and a province where we don’t see fewer people entering skilled trade [and] more young people leaving the province,” they said.
They credited the increased funding to “growing outrage and pressure from Ontarians” after over 700 school programs were cut in communities across the province.
