The Honourable John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, gave the keynote speech at the Canadian Club luncheon yesterday. Dan and I were fortunate enough to attend, with Dan accepting the Minister’s invitation to sit at the head table.
The Minister’s remarks largely focused on where we’ve come in the five years since the Honourable Bob Rae presented his review of the post-secondary education system in Ontario. He proudly touted the vast increases in enrollment seen under the McGuinty government – equal to adding another U of T and Ryerson to the Province, as he put it. He stressed the significant improvements we’ve seen to financial aid in Ontario, both in terms of dollars and the number of students receiving aid. And he devoted much of his remarks to the advancements in training and apprenticeship programs over the past five years.
After taking stock of where we were and where we are, precious little insight was given on the future. The Minister did stress accountability and college-university credit transfer as important files moving forward. The fact that these issues are comparatively less cost-intensive is likely not a coincidence.
Interestingly, while all the perennial issues were touched on, the Minister said very little on the issue of quality of education, in the past or the future. There was no mention of student-faculty ratios, of new learning pedagogies, of persistence, retention and student success.
I’ve heard Minister Milloy speak previously on a number of occasions, but I thought his delivery yesterday was the best I’ve seen from him. He was well rehearsed, dynamic and quite funny.
I want to extend thanks to the Council of Ontario Universities for having me at their table for the event.
-Alexi White
Executive Director
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
