Ontario ends tuition fee freeze at public colleges, universities

The Ford government will end its freeze on post-secondary tuition this year, allowing struggling colleges and universities to raise fees as they adapt to the reality of fewer international students.

Beginning in September, post-secondary institutions will be able to increase their tuition fees by two per cent per year for three years, before switching to an inflation-informed increase or a further two per cent annually, whichever is lower.

The change will also come with an increase of $6.4 billion in core funding over the next four years, which the government is targeting at colleges and universities offering courses related to “in-demand careers.”

The government said the increase will mean that operating funding for Ontario’s post-secondary sector jumps by roughly 30 per cent to an annual total of $7 billion.

Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn said the move would ensure “the sustainability” of colleges and universities while preparing students “with the in-demand skills they need to meaningfully find good-paying, rewarding careers, while continuing to keep education accessible and keep costs down for students and their families.”

The new funding is also designed to create 70,000 new places at small, rural, northern, Indigenous and French institutions in the province.

“Postsecondary education is one of Ontario’s most important long-term investments – and today’s announcement helps ensure that investment remains strong, responsible and sustainable for years to come,” Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said.

The government is launching its new approach around three priorities for the sector: preparing students for in-demand careers, maintaining access to post-secondary education and keeping the sector sustainable.

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The funding boost and tuition increase are the first major financial changes for colleges and universities since an injection of just over $1 billion in early 2024, a number far below what a panel of experts assembled by the government had recommended.

That money came after the federal government introduced a cap on the number of international students coming into Canada — hitting Ontario’s post-secondary education sector particularly hard.

The province’s public colleges and universities have endured two years of cuts and layoffs since the cap was introduced and then later tightened.

Shortly after the Progressive Conservatives won the 2018 election, they cut college tuition by 10 per cent and then froze it, with public colleges increasingly relying on international students to make up the shortfall.

The new tuition framework would see provincial fees for students stay below 2019 levels until 2030.

Before the cap came into place, Ontario colleges were drawing an average of roughly 30 per cent of their revenue from international students.

The Ford government calculated on Thursday that the decrease in international students resulted in a loss of $2 billion in revenue per year for colleges and universities.

Colleges Ontario has said its members have already cut at least $1.8 billion, suspended 600 programs and shed 8,000 jobs.

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