Last week, OCUFA representatives participated in Government of Ontario consultations at Algonquin College in Ottawa, and at UOIT in Oshawa. The Ottawa session was a full day, and covered a variety of themes. The UOIT session focused on “experiential and entrepreneurial learning”.
As with the other roundtables discussions, there was wide agreement on the need to develop policies and reforms suitable to Ontario’s unique higher education sector. It was also widely acknowledged by participants that while technology-enabled learning and experiential learning have real benefits for students, they require a large investment to be successful.
OCUFA will be distributing a summary of the consultations to our members shortly. In addition, we will be meeting with the Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray over the coming weeks to communicate our concerns and to learn more about the government’s plans for the results of the consultation. Our expectation is that all of the feedback received during the discussions will be incorporated in any proposals going forward.
OCUFA is currently preparing a formal written submission for the Government of Ontario, responding to the questions and options proposed in the discussion paper, Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation, and Knowledge. This submission will be published on OCUFA’s website at the end of September.
This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.