OUSA

OUSA represents the interests of over 145,000 professional and undergraduate, full-time and part-time university students at nine student associations across Ontario.

Our vision is for an accessible, affordable, accountable and high quality post-secondary education in Ontario.  To achieve this vision we’ve come together to develop solutions to challenges facing higher education, build broad consensus for our policy options, and lobby government to implement them.

Find out more about our activities, our structure, what people are saying about us, and the people behind the organization. We hope this gives you a comprehensive look at how OUSA is put together. If you have any questions about what we do, feel free to contact us.

Vision: To improve the accessibility, affordability, accountability and quality of undergraduate education in Ontario.

Mission: It is the mission of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to:

• conduct research to identify issues affecting the accessibility, affordability, accountability and quality of undergraduate education in Ontario;
• develop credible and constructive policy to address these challenges;
• lobby the government to affect their undergraduate education policy;
• organize campaigns to effectively articulate the needs and interests of our members;
• communicate research and policy to both educate and affect the opinions of stakeholders, Ontarians and government; and
• build partnerships in the post-secondary education realm to accomplish our vision.

Principles: OUSA is guided by a number of key principles, including:

Member Driven - Students direct all of the activities of our organization, including our messages to government, our research and policy, our strategic direction, and all of our programs and deliverables.  As a member, you are in the driver’s seat.

Decision-Making by Consensus - In order to ensure our decisions reflect the interests of all of our members, we endeavour to make decisions by consensus.

Access to Key Decision Makers - OUSA representatives strive to ensure students have access to key decision makers, including political and public service representatives in the provincial government, as well as Ministers and Members of Provincial Parliament.  This access is driven by our professional approach to providing educated solutions while maintaining a strong position on our members’ opinions on issues related to their education.

Respect for the Autonomy of Individual Student Associations - Student associations retain autonomy over their own affairs in all matters, including policy, public messaging and methods of alignment.

Solution-Oriented - One of OUSA’s most important goals is to provide educated solutions to government through responsive research and policy on the issues that affect students the most.

Coordination - OUSA facilitates the coordination of public messaging and local lobbying efforts to the provincial government by member associations.

Accountable - We strive to be accountable to our members through responsible fiscal management and regular, public reporting of our activities.

Efficient - We strive to achieve maximum results with limited resources.  Member fees are low at $2.02 per student.

Focused - In order to achieve successes for students, OUSA remains focused on undergraduate education issues.

Decentralized - As an alliance, OUSA only exists because of the contributions of member associations and student representatives at member schools.  As a member, you are OUSA.  Therefore, the student representatives on the Steering Committee direct all of the activities of the home office.  Policy development is also executed at individual member schools.

Balanced Representation - In order to ensure balanced representation, our General Assembly delegations are based on population and our Steering Committee designates one vote per school.

FAQs:

Below you will find some frequently asked questions about OUSA. We hope that the responses provided will help to answer your questions and to alleviate any confusion you may have about the organization. If you have any questions that are not addressed below, or would like further information, please feel free to contact our Executive Director.

1. What is OUSA?

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) is a coalition of student associations from across Ontario. They have come together to protect the interests of Ontario’s undergraduate students by providing research and ideas to governments on how to improve the affordability, accessibility, accountability and quality of post-secondary education in the province. These elected student representatives work together to set OUSA’s policies and direction. To learn about OUSA’s successes for students, please click here. The organization approaches its goal of advancing the needs of undergraduate students through five means: direct lobbying, public advocacy, issue awareness campaigns, research & policy solutions and building partnerships.

2. What has OUSA done for students?

OUSA has a long record of success in lobbying for changes that benefit students at Ontario’s universities. Some notable accomplishments are listed on our successes page here.

3. What is OUSA’s membership fee?

Student associations can be members of OUSA either by becoming full or associate members. Full members currently pay $2.76 per full-time equivalent student. Associate members work out a partnership agreement that is approved by the rest of the alliance. For more information on becoming a member, please see the section here.

4. What is the hierarchy at OUSA?

OUSA is run by the elected student leaders from its member campuses. A representative from each student union/federation/association sits on OUSA’s Steering Committee. Members of the Steering Committee elect a President in mid-May who serves until May of the following year (the term for elected student leaders is May 1 to April 30). The President of OUSA is the executive head of the organization and acts as the chief student representative to media, government and other stakeholders. In addition, the Steering Committee elects a Treasurer and Secretary, who also serve as officers of the organization.

The day-to-day activities of OUSA (as mandated by the Steering Committee) are carried out by four full-time office staff: an Executive Director, a Director of Research, a Research Analyst and a Director of Communications. The office staff work from the home office in Toronto and often travel to member campuses throughout the year to meet with students.

The organization has a General Assembly in the fall and a second General Assembly in the spring, giving students from its member campuses the opportunity to approve policy and to set direction for future policy and research initiatives. General Assemblies are held at member campuses on a rotation, as determined by Steering Committee members. Click here for a description of OUSA’s policy development.

5. Is OUSA a partisan organization?

OUSA is a non-partisan organization that responds to the will of its members. If you read our policies or our comments in national or local papers, you will find that our policies and positions do not rest on any particular area of the political spectrum. They are founded on diligent research, developed by students, approved by student representatives, and are derived from formal and informal meetings with university students across the province who share concerns about the education they receive.