Last week, OCUFA made its official submission to the Government of Ontario’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs (SCFEA). Titled Preserving the Gains We’ve Made, the submission contains a plan to dramatically increase the quality and affordability of Ontario’s universities by 2020.
Key recommendations include:
- The Government of Ontario immediately begin moving per-student public investment in universities towards the national average.
- The Government of Ontario commit funding to hiring new full-time faculty members in order to bring the student-to-faculty ratio in line with the Canadian average.
- Freeze tuition fees, provide compensatory funding to universities for lost tuition fee revenue, and consult stakeholders on a new funding framework.
- Enhance support for university-based basic research.
- Respect the collective bargaining rights of faculty associations, preserving responsible local negotiations that have worked so well.
- Allow the MTCU-funded OCUFA pension research project to be completed prior to introducing pension reforms in the university sector.
The OCUFA plan contains both minimum and maximum yearly investments, which allows the government to scale its investment according to its fiscal circumstances.
The official date for the 2013 Ontario Budget has not yet been set, but it is expected in April. We will be providing complete analysis of the new budget as soon as it is released.
Read the full submission.