TORONTO, January 26, 2024 – “In response to the new measures announced by the provincial government today, Ontario’s universities share the government’s commitment to protect students and reiterate that student success is at the very core of their mission.
It is why, for decades, universities remain committed to ensuring international students have the resources and supports they need to have the best possible experience.
Universities, for example, have long established robust program quality assurance systems. They also follow leading practices that ensure rigorous recruitment processes, adhere to strong and transparent admissions practices and provide wraparound student supports.
We also know that ensuring students have access to housing is critical. Through first-year housing guarantees, community partnerships and universities’ own housing projects, the university sector currently has a total of 72,000 residence spaces – more than 6,400 of these spaces were added over the past five years – with plans to build more than 10,800 new spaces over the next five to six years.
As key contributors to Ontario’s workforce, university students are graduating job-ready. They experience high employment rates of 94.3 per cent two years after graduation – including more than 98 per cent for medical and nursing graduates; more than 94 per cent for engineering graduates and more than 92 per cent for humanities graduates.
However, current provincial funding policies are jeopardizing the ability for Ontario’s universities to continue to support student success.
Even before the federal government announced the cap this week, Ontario’s universities were already at a breaking point.
At least 10 universities are projecting operating deficits after a 10 per cent tuition cut in 2019, four years of a tuition freeze and declining real per-student operating funding. These financial pressures have led to cuts that are and will continue to impact student programs, supports and services.
Ontario’s universities reiterate their call to the provincial government to urgently implement the Blue-Ribbon Panel’s recommendations to boost operating funding and end the tuition freeze, while protecting low income students.
As announced today, we look forward to the government’s response to the Blue-Ribbon Panel report before the end of February. Implementing the Panel’s recommendations in their entirety would inject a much-needed $1.9 billion into the university sector over the next three years.
The time is now for government action and investment in Ontario’s universities – and Ontario’s future.”
– Steve Orsini, President and CEO, Council of Ontario Universities