The latest education indicators from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggest that Canada ranks third amongst OECD countries in annual expenditures per student in tertiary (college and university) education. These figures include expenditures by governments on direct support to colleges and universities, support for research and development, and financial support to individuals in the form of student aid and loans.
They also include expenditures by private sources, including household expenditures on items such as tuition. The proportion of total expenditures represented by public sources in Canada is 63 per cent, well below the OECD average of 70 per cent. Looking only at public expenditures on public institutions, Canada’s ranking falls to tenth.
It is difficult to know where Ontario would fit into the rankings, but if Canadian provincial operating funding and United States state appropriations per student are anything to go by, Ontario would likely rank somewhere in the middle of a pack that includes 10 countries with a GDP per capita 75 per cent of Canada’s.
Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Education at a Glance: Indicators 2012
This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.