Ontario Student Voices Responds to $6.4 Billion Postsecondary Funding Announcement
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At a time when post-secondary students and institutions are grappling with unprecedented financial and sustainability pressures, meaningful and targeted government support is vital to protecting access, stability, and long-term success across our province.
Ontario Student Voices (OSV) welcomes the Government of Ontario’s $6.4 billion investment in the long-term sustainability of the province’s post-secondary sector. Increased operating support for colleges and polytechnics is both necessary and overdue, and we recognize the importance of strengthening Ontario’s institutions to meet workforce and economic demands.
Over the past two years, OSV has consistently advocated for improvements to per-student funding to better reflect the realities colleges face. We appreciate the government’s inclusion of increased per-student funding for both full-time and part-time learners, including the 30 per cent increase for part-time students, as a positive step toward strengthening programs, services and institutional sustainability.
However, while institutional funding is rising, direct support for students is moving in the opposite direction.
We are concerned about the new tuition framework, which allows for 2 per cent annual increases to tuition for the next three years starting in 2026, followed by annual increases adjusted to the three year average rate, capped at 2 per cent. Alongside the significant changes to OSAP, these measures will have a substantial impact on the already challenging affordability landscape facing students.
The government’s restructuring of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) — reducing non-repayable grants from approximately 60 per cent of aid to just 25 per cent — will place immense and unprecedented financial strain on students. Grants provide immediate and real relief. Replacing them with loans shifts costs onto students’ futures and reduces the money available to cover essential living expenses today.
While stable funding models are important, the combination of tuition increases with the new changes to OSAP will place additional financial strain on students.
OSV’s Board Chair Rajveer Singh echoes these serious and sincere concerns shared by College students across Ontario: “At a time when students are already navigating historic affordability pressures — including rising housing, transportation, and food insecurity — this reduction in grant support will force many to make impossible choices. For too many students, food becomes the first expense sacrificed. Others may increase work hours at the expense of their studies, take on unsustainable debt, or reconsider pursuing post-secondary education altogether.”
Ontario cannot build a competitive, skilled workforce while increasing financial barriers for the very students it is asking to fill those roles. Institutional sustainability must be matched with student sustainability. When grant funding declines, access declines. Education completion rates fall, and in turn, prosperity and equity declines.
OSV urges the provincial government to reassess the impact of these changes and to ensure that investments in post-secondary education include robust, non-repayable financial support for students. While strengthening colleges and polytechnics is vital, we cannot lose sight of the fact that students must remain the priority.
Ontario’s future workforce depends on it — but more importantly, students across this province are relying on that support to meet their needs today, and secure their futures tomorrow.