Last Thursday, Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn made a groundbreaking announcement: the Province would be investing $6.4 billion into Ontario higher education – marking the first, tangible multi-year investment in post-secondary sustainability since assuming office back in June 2018. Calls for the Province to meaningfully invest in higher education have been a key advocacy push for Ontario’s student unions, stretching back years.
However, this announcement is more complex than it looks. Broadly speaking, it introduces three core changes relevant to students:
A. New Long-Term Funding Model
Firstly, Minister Nolan’s announcement proposes a new long-term funding model aimed at delivering $6.4 billion over four years, with the promise to raise annual operating funding to $7 billion. Not much is known beyond this, but essentially this means a 6% increase in full-time student funding.
The Province also says it plans to fund 70,000 more in-demand seats for students, with a focus on small, rural, northern, francophone, and Indigenous Institutes.
Overall, this is good news for students, but we have to keep in mind that since 2018, the Ontario government has been absolutely dismal in funding higher education. In fact, their funding levels per student (at both universities and colleges) are so low that they single-handedly bring down the national average. The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) points out that the Ontario government would need to increase funding by 13.5% per student over 5 years in order to meet the national average.
Recommendation for future advocacy: Continue to push the Ontario government to increase per student funding, to closer align multi-year investments to OCUFA’s estimate of a needed 13.5% funding increase per student over 5 years in order to meet the national average.
B. Updated Tuition Framework
Second, the Province has officially ended its near decade-long tuition cap – which has kept domestic tuition frozen since 2018.
For the first time in 8 years, the government will now allow universities and colleges to raise tuition by 2% for three years, then up to 2 percent or at the three-year average rate of inflation (whichever is less) in later years.
What does this mean for students?
On average, this will add an additional cost of $0.18/day (for domestic college students) and $0.47/day (for domestic university students). Low income students will be exempted from these tuition increases thanks to the enhanced Student Access Guarantee.
Overall, this measure is also largely positive for students. Sure, it slightly increases domestic tuition (effectively at market inflation rate) but it will also ease the pressure institutions have been putting on driving up international student fees (to compensate for record low provincial support since 2018). The hope is it will lead to more sustainable practices across campuses, and help stop program and service cuts.
Recommendation for Future Advocacy: Continue to work with university administrators to ensure low and sustainable increases in domestic tuition are re-invested into student services and supports.
C. Overhaul of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP)
The last major change proposed by Minister Nolan is a drastic one, and it will significantly alter student aid for years to come. Each year, roughly half a million students each year use the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), which provides a mix of non-repayable grants and repayable loans for students to access higher education.
When you apply to OSAP, the Ontario government will calculate your need, and determine what proportion of grants vs loans you receive. Before, students could receive up to a maximum of 85% grants. However, with the latest changes, the grant maximum will drop to just 25% for Fall 2026.
This means if you have $10,000 in annual tuition and you successfully qualify for OSAP, your previous maximum of OSAP grants you get (originally $8,500) would now drop to $2,500 (or lower). This effectively leaves you to either rely on high-interest Ontario student loans (at approx. 5.45% interest) or find some other source to pay for your tuition.
The Ontario government has long neglected and undermined OSAP, most notably its $400 million clawback from OSAP in 2021 – which the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) fought hard against. Given that the Province has called the program “dramatically out of line with other jurisdictions”, expect a continued push towards making OSAP 100% loans-based in coming years.
This move to drastically shift OSAP heavily towards loans is a major concern for student aid – given that the Ontario Undergraduate Student Survey shows that 4 in 5 students anticipate their debt upon graduation to be somewhat or very burdensome.
This change to OSAP sets a dangerous precedent, and could quickly increase the number and extent of student debt across the province. Already a third of all Ontario students owe debt upon graduating, totalling over $2.1 billion in student debt across the province.
Recommendation for Future Advocacy: Changes to OSAP need to be paired with student debt relief supports, including a no-interest student loan program (modelled after the federal initiative) to remove all interest on Ontario student loans, and also extend the OSAP loan repayment grace period from six months to at least two years.
The Bigger Picture
Overall, this provincial announcement is a positive one for Ontario higher education but it does come with certain drawbacks, especially for student aid. Minister Quinn has put some political capital into this announcement, and student union advocates should echo the positive elements loudly and publicly, while also encouraging future supports within the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.
As Ontario student leaders, this announcement represents not just a reward for years of your hard-fought advocacy, but also an opportunity to push further with your advocacy asks.
