November 8, 2024, TORONTO – OCUFA’s Advocacy Day, bringing Ontario MPPs into conversation with faculty and academic librarians, opened with a breakfast event where all four political parties– Conservatives, NDP, Liberals, and Green Party – spoke about the importance and value of Ontario’s world-class public universities.
In Minister of Colleges and Universities Nolan Quinn’s remarks, he expressed concerns about the impact of international student caps, spoke about recent legislation, and referenced recent government monies for university. As OCUFA has previously expressed, while appreciative of the small investment, universities need significantly greater monies just to reach the national average of per-student funding.
Further, OCUFA maintains that public universities rely too heavily on international student tuitions, due to decades of underfunding from the provincial government. In 2024-25, the average undergraduate tuition in Ontario for an international student is $48,267, compared to a domestic student tuition of $8,514, which is approximately six times more than what a domestic student pays for tuition.
“We appreciate the Minister taking the time to come and discuss universities. However, there are still many issues to address, such as exploding class sizes, students struggling financially, and faculty workload. Students cannot focus on their studies if they’re working multiple jobs to make ends meet, nor can faculty support or mentor their students when they have hundreds of students in their classes,” says Nigmendra Narain, OCUFA President. “Then there’s also the fact of growing numbers of term-to-term contract professors with no job security and poor pay. They are working hard to give students the best education while at the same time being worried about their job every day.”
NDP MPP Peggy Sattler, Official Opposition critic for Colleges and Universities, Liberal MPP Karen McCrimmon and Green Party MPP Mike Schreiner also spoke on the value of universities and that the sector is under attack. Each one highlighted their concerns about the government’s approach to universities, problems with chronic underfunding, and the impact on Ontario’s future generations.
“According to Statscan, there will be an increase of 85,000 Ontarians aged 15-19 in the coming few years, approximately a third of whom can be expected to attend university. This makes the need for stable, increased university funding even more important and urgent if we want Ontario students to be able to access a university education and stay in Ontario.” says Jenny Ahn, OCUFA Executive Director.
Throughout Advocacy Day, faculty members and academic librarians spoke to MPPs from all parties and across Ontario. In the meetings, OCUFA reiterated its recommendations, such as increasing provincial funding to universities by 11.75% per year for five years to bring Ontario in line with the Canadian average of per-student funding. Currently, Ontario’s per student funding is dead last in the country, providing only $9,890 per domestic student in total university funding in 2021-22; the Canadian average was $15,806 that year.
OCUFA further reiterated that an investment in Ontario universities is an investment in Ontario’s future. Ontario universities boost GDP by around $30 billion, and every $1 invested in university education generates a positive economic return of $1.36 – nearly 40% return on investment! Most importantly, this is an investment in the future of Ontario and the future of the next generation of voters.