The Ford government’s recent announcements regarding post-secondary funding have drawn criticism from students, unions, and experts. The changes announced are: an end to the 2019 tuition freeze, a $6.4 billion investment in higher education, and making OSAP a primarily loans-based program.
The investment has been called “a step in the right direction” by the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario (CFSO). Undoing the tuition freeze has also been met with some approval, as it had left institutions underfunded for years. However, OSAP changes have caused widespread outrage. OSAP currently operates on a mix of grants, which do not need to be repaid, and loans, which need to be repaid. Students can receive up to 85 percent of funding as grants based on financial need, which has been the primary means of funding for many low-income students. The Ford government has essentially flipped the percentages, capping grants at only 25 percent. These changes have left students at UofT and across the province concerned and demoralised.
“I feel as though I’m at a loss continuing my studies,” said Ella Martone, a second-year student at UTSG. “The academic environment is inherently competitive and difficult, but this added on has only made the pressure more extreme.” Incoming students are also feeling this pressure. Ahad Chaudhri, who will be attending UTM in September, said, “This move is worrying because future students such as myself will spend more time worrying about how to pay our fees rather than focus on our education.”
Students across several campuses have begun organising protests in response. The CFSO held a rally at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, March 4th, which was attended by many students.
UofT’s Response
Following the announcement, the UofT registrar sent an email assuring students that UofT will remain affordable. Vice-Provost Sandy Welsh reaffirms the university’s policy that “no domestic student offered admission to a program at the University of Toronto should be unable to enter or complete the program due to lack of financial means,” and that UofT invests close to 70 percent more financial aid per student than most other universities in Ontario. The Council of Ontario Universities had projected universities to operate at a $265 million deficit this year and these changes to funding put institutions in a much better position to provide more student aid, increase services offered to students, and operate more programs.
According to the 2025-26 budget report, UofT allocated 11 percent of their expenditures, or around $265 million, towards financial aid across all three campuses. With a total student enrolment of over 102 000, this may seem like more than enough. But financial aid is not easy to acquire. UTAPS is only awarded to those that have exhausted all other means of funding, and many grants and bursaries awarded through the colleges operate on the same system. Scholarships often come with strict requirements, either demanding extra-curricular involvement or a high GPA. This is not always attainable, especially for students who work jobs and juggle other financial responsibilities. Fourth-year student Razan Omar, whose undergraduate degree was only made possible through OSAP grants, emphasised that “relying on scholarships is just not a realistic expectation for everyone seeking an education.” Overall, these barriers to financial aid combined with the rising cost of living and current unemployment rates paints a rough picture for Ontario students.
Roots of the funding crisis
Advocacy groups and policy experts have been alarmed at the state of Ontario’s post-secondary sector for years. This dates back well before the current government, but Ford’s policies are believed to have significantly exacerbated the issue. Ontario’s post-secondary funding is the lowest of any Canadian province, and well below the national average. A 2024 report by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associates (OCUFA) warned that this put the system at risk by forcing institutions to be much more dependent on tuition than the rest of the country. Students are essentially forced to finance what is meant to be a public, government-funded sector.
This created “higher-than average rates of debt” among Ontario graduates. In this context, Ford’s 2019 tuition cut might have temporarily relieved students, but it further throttled universities. It also came alongside a complete freeze of direct provincial funding to the sector and major cuts to OSAP grants that had been enabling students with financial need to attend school for free. In a similar fashion to the recent changes, this policy placed a disproportionate burden on low-income students and families. Moreover, the limits placed on domestic tuition further cemented international tuition as an integral source of funding. In fact, Ford’s government directed colleges in particular to seek revenue by increasing international enrolment. As a result of this dependence, the federal government’s restrictions on international student visas in 2024 forced several institutions to cut budgets and shut down programs.
These restrictions were cited by Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn as the reason for the sector’s current instability. Some experts believe the federal policy is being scapegoated to avoid acknowledging Ontario’s long-term policy failures. However, it likely did push the crisis into a more precarious position that the province could no longer ignore, forcing them to commit to new funding for the first time in years. This move has its own set of issues. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) pointed out that the $6.4 billion investment (over a four-year period) is not actually enough to account for Ontario’s “embarrassing gap” or loss of revenue from years of underfunding. OPSEU has also expressed concerns about the allocation of these funds, as they are set to follow a two-tier model under which select “priority programs” will receive funding than others. It is not clear what these programs are, but Ford’s recent comment discouraging students from taking “basket-weaving” courses and his overall emphasis on STEM and trades may be a clue as to what will be prioritized.CCPA also suggests that the funding is being presented disingenuously as a historically high investment. Similar to the 2019 freeze, this strategy may be a way for the province to sanitise its image and mitigate some of the backlash from the OSAP cuts. This perspective is evidenced by the fact that over 50 percent of the ‘new’ investment is actually just a reallocation of funds from within the Ministry. This can explain the dramatic changes to OSAP: the Toronto Star reports that this will take around $700 million directly from OSAP each year. This will essentially redirect funding from students to schools. One UofT student believes this means that “students are now paying to keep our institutions afloat.” According to second-year student Sasha Adamova, this is a “betrayal” of domestic students on the part of the Ford government. As Adamova puts it, these policies reflect “a crisis in the making, a direct result of the provincial government’s fiscal mismanagement.”
