READ and SHARE our platform report card.
Over the course of the election campaign, OCUFA has analysed the three major parties’ platforms to determine where each party stands on important issues affecting the postsecondary education sector.
Our analyses of the Liberal, NDP and PC party platforms examine in detail each party’s position (if they have one) on funding for postsecondary education, faculty hiring, affordability, protecting collective bargaining rights and pensions.
We’ve now created a report card that provides a quick snapshot of what each of the platforms has to say on each of these important issues (read it here). Proposals outlined in the parties’ platforms received grades ranging from A (for the Liberal Party’s commitment on pensions) to F (for the PC Party’s platform as a whole). But there were far too many incompletes across the board, where the parties were silent on pressing issues affecting postsecondary education.
In some cases, the parties provided more detail about where they stand on higher education in their responses to our questionnaire – for example, the Liberal Party clarified that they would increase university funding by one per cent per year for the next three years, and indicated that the four-year tuition framework they put in place capped tuition increases at one per cent above inflation; the NDP indicated support for issues of concern around funding and faculty hiring, but made no firm commitments.
In the final stretch before the election, OCUFA will continue to raise the profile of higher education issues in the campaign and will continue to advocate for policies that will make a real difference to students, their families, and faculty members across Ontario.