University and college students in Ontario will get a 10 per cent reduction on their tuition fees, CTV News Toronto has learned, ahead of an announcement set to be made on Thursday.
The Ford government’s new tuition fee framework is expected to go into effect in the 2019-2020 school year and fees won’t increase in 2020-2021.
According to a government memo given to CTV News Toronto, the province will use “existing reporting mechanisms” to ensure that institutions give students a break on their fees.
“Core operating grants are contingent on compliance with the Tuition Fee Framework,” the memo states, adding that yearly tuition compliance reports will be scrutinized to see which institutions are passing along the reduction.
The government estimates that a domestic student paying $10,028 for a graduate program will pay $9,034 under the new framework.
The cut would have to be absorbed by universities and colleges, which could be concerning for the institutions. Currently, most universities see 50 per cent of their revenue coming from tuition, while the remainder comes from government funding.
The tuition cut is not being extended to international students, who will continue to have unregulated fees. The maximum increase for an international college student is 20 per cent, while universities have no limit on the increase in fees for foreign students.
Merrilee Fullerton, minister of training, colleges and universities, is also expected to make an announcement on the future of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) on Thursday.
In December, Ontario’s auditor general found that changes made to OSAP by the former Liberal government did not attract more students to post-secondary education, but instead, benefitted existing and mature students.
The former Liberal government retooled OSAP last year, giving more students grants as opposed to loans, hoping to increase access to college and university programs.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s report found that in the first year of the new program, the number of people receiving aid rose by 25 per cent while enrollment only increased by 2 per cent.
“The uptake of financial aid to date has exceeded expectations,” Lysyk’s report stated, noting that the latest government budget projects the program could cost $2 billion per year, by 2020/21.That would be a 50 percent increase from 2016/2017 figures.
The ford government has noted it is committed to reviewing the program.
