Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Post-Secondary Education
Executive Summary
Post-secondary education (PSE) must meet five critical objectives: it must educate a
growing share of the population; help equalize economic and social outcomes; provide an
important component of lifelong learning; be an engine of innovation; and deliver quality
education efficiently.
Enrolment is expected to grow by an average of 1.7 per cent per year through 2017–18.
Already, such rapid expansion, combined with the lowest funding levels in Canada, has
undermined quality — more sessional instructors, larger classes and less contact with
professors. Ontario provides the lowest per-student provincial operating grant funding in
Canada to its universities and colleges, and it is falling at a time when the cost of continuing
to do the same thing has been rising by three to five per cent annually.
Clear objectives are needed. Post-secondary enrolment in universities and colleges has grown
dramatically in recent years, but there is no coherent plan that addresses the whole system.
Higher enrolment is inevitable when the government’s funding formula ties grants to enrolment
growth, as it does now. A better formula would encourage PSE institutions to improve quality,
with varying mandates — a research focus for some; excellent undergraduate teaching for
others; and regional economic development for still others.
We must first address two very topical PSE issues — whether tuition freezes are in students’
best interests and the balance between research and teaching excellence.
� The fact that tuition fees are rising faster than inflation is troubling. Tuition revenue should
represent a good investment for students, which puts a premium on efficiency, and
financial barriers should not impair access. But tuition freezes are not in students’ interests.
The likely result is further deterioration of the student experience — larger classes and
less opportunity to debate and develop critical thinking skills; and
� As federal support for research tripled between 1997 and 2003, universities pursued
federal and provincial research dollars, all in the name of becoming “world-class research
centres.” Few of Ontario’s research centres will become the best in Canada, never mind
the world. Many, however, have gone so far in this quest as to cross-subsidize research,
effectively supporting it with money from undergraduate tuition revenues. Increasingly,
universities are letting professors sacrifice teaching commitments to conduct more
research. There must be a better balance; excellent research should not trump
excellent teaching.
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