The latest release of Financial Information of Universities and Colleges offers little reason for optimism that the Ontario’s university funding gap will be closed any time soon. A brief respite courtesy of the Ontario government’s Reaching Higher plan notwithstanding, per-student provincial operating funding for Ontario’s universities has lagged the average in the rest of Canada […]
On June 19-21, 2013, OCUFA was please to co-host Worldviews 2013: Global Trends in Media and Higher Education . Over three days, 250 speakers and delegates came together to discuss the relationship between media and higher education, a critical issue for those who study and work in higher education institutions as well as those who make their living covering university and college issues. Participants included […]
Talking about tuition fees out of context makes little sense, according to a report on Learning and Earning by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Hugh Mackenzie writes that the role of the income tax system must be taken into account in any discussion of tuition fee policy. In most provinces, government funding is the largest single […]
As we reported in last week’s OCUFA Report , Ontario has announced plans to cut the amount of per-student funding provided to the province’s teacher education programs. This week, OCUFA wrote a letter to Minister Liz Sandals (Education) and Brad Duguid (Training, Colleges, and Universities) expressing our concerns. The full text of the letter follows: Dear Ministers Duguid and Sandals, […]
Critics of the productivity of Ontario’s universities need to check their facts. Ontario universities are doing much better than their American peers when it comes to graduation rates. Over the last decade, the overall graduation rate amongst undergraduates in Ontario has been steadily improving. The latest data show it at 81 per cent. Once first professional […]
OCUFA is pleased to announce this year’s winner of the Mandelabum Fellowship: Sara Pavan, a doctoral candidate in political studies at Queen’s University. Sara is an outstanding student, receiving high marks throughout her coursework and a “Distinction” for her comprehensive exams, a rare honour. In addition to her first-class academics, the fellowship jury was particularly […]
On Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the Government of Ontario announced significant changes to teacher education in Ontario . Unfortunately, they chose to accompany their curriculum changes with a 33 per cent cut to per-student funding for teacher colleges. Some of the structural changes – doubling the length of teacher education from one year to two years – were expected, and will help bring […]
On May 27, 2013, OCUFA President Constance Adamson wrote a letter to Rector Chantal Beauvais of Saint Paul University, regarding troubling labour developments at the university. Here is the full text of the letter. Dear Rector Beauvais; I am writing this letter to urge the administration of Saint Paul University to reverse its threat to […]
It’s often assumed that Ontario’s tuition fees are a bargain compared to those in the United States. But tuition fees are rising faster in Ontario, and the percentage of university revenue made up of student fees is higher in the province than in American public institutions. Data from the United States indicate that inflation-adjusted tuition and […]
On May 23, 2013, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) and the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (MTCU) hosted a symposium on education in Ontario featuring several Ontario Research Chairs. Glen Jones, a professor at the University of Toronto and Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement, presented his thoughts on “the […]
When a pundit or politician attacks unions, they’re really attacking equality for everyone, and for women in particular. Unions and the public sector – and public sector unions especially – are no strangers to criticism. In the wake of the Great Recession, perhaps it should be no surprise that attacks are more vociferous than when times […]
Collective bargaining continues at Ontario’s universities, with seven faculty associations currently at the table. Two of these associations (Brescia and UOIT Teaching Stream faculty) are negotiating their first contract. Two more associations are preparing to begin bargaining soon. At UOIT, appropriate permanency/continuing employment provisions for teaching stream faculty remains an issue. At Ottawa, the faculty association […]
Two recent reports form the Centre for Policy Alternatives address the gender gap in Canada and Ontario. Both find that not enough is being done to close the distance between men and women in the workplace. Closing the Gender Gap takes a look at a variety of indicators used by the World Economic Forum to assess the gender gap […]
At first glance, the 2013 Ontario Budget doesn’t say much at all about higher education. This silence obscures the austerity logic still working against the province’s universities. The 2013 Budget continues the slow cuts announced in 2012. Through so-called “policy levers”, some $121 million is being cut from university budgets in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The government will also begin clawing […]
If a government’s commitment to “innovation” can be measured by its support to the institutions that carry out innovative research and educate the people who put their own ingenuity to work, Ontario’s government support is on a downward slide. University funding as a percentage of GDP still lags well behind the rest of Canada, despite […]
