Panel to look at financial sustainability of Ontario colleges and universities

A new expert panel will look at the long-term finances of Ontario’s colleges and universities, as well as how to keep tuition affordable while ensuring “the best student experience possible,” says Minister Jill Dunlop.

“At the end of the day, it’s about keeping the sector strong,” Dunlop said in an interview. “Our learners need to get the skills and the world-class education they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow.”

The schools, however, say that with an ongoing tuition freeze, the government will have to provide them with additional, stable long-term funding.

The expert panel was announced last week along with a continuation of a tuition freeze for most Ontario students, and a five per cent increase for out-of-province students.

It will be led by Alan Harrison, the former provost and academic vice-principal of Queen’s University, and is expected to report back in late summer.

Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities, said he hopes the panel will “play an important role in having a conversation on the vital role higher education” has in the economy and in fostering research and innovation.

Orsini said financial sustainability is something universities would like to see the government act on sooner, given operating grants have declined by 30 per cent since 2006-07.

That, combined with the province’s 10 per cent tuition fee cut, which it implemented in 2019, plus the ongoing tuition freeze “has had a significant impact on the post-secondary education sector,” he said.

“We’ve been clear that we are disappointed with the ongoing decline in operating grants for students, and that we are now into our fifth year of the tuition cut and freeze,” Orsini said, adding he hopes the panel makes recommendations “to ensure we have the resources to ensure student success.”

Despite declining funding, he said universities spent $1.2 billion on student grants and scholarships last year, as well as $1.4 billion on student services, including mental health services which have been overrun with demand amid the pandemic.

“We are doing what we can to provide student supports, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to do so,” Orsini said.

Linda Franklin, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, has said “the current situation isn’t sustainable. Ontario must find meaningful solutions that ensure students continue to acquire the professional expertise to succeed in their careers.”

Dunlop said the panel will look at finances and labour market demands, and will consult with post-secondary and business groups before making its recommendations.

Among those to be consulted are the Indigenous Institutes Consortium, the College Student Alliance, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance and the Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students, as well as employers and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

The panel will be tasked with “ensuring that schools are making students job-ready … and that these students have the opportunity to interact in the labour market,” Dunlop said.

“That’s what students are looking for now — that work experience while they’re in school, making them job-ready when they graduate.”

NDP post-secondary critic Laura Mae Lindo said in an email that while “it’s a step in the right direction for the Ford government to engage in consultation efforts … students need action right now.”

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