Student leaders meet with Premier McGuinty
OUSA has a long record of success in advocating for changes that benefit students at Ontario’s universities. Some notable accomplishments include:
- successfully worked to introduce a new $420 million grant program in January 2012 that reduced the up-front tuition costs for over 300,000 students
- successfully advocated for $74 million over five years in 2011 to develop a new credit transfer system that makes it easier for students to transfer between institutions
- successfully secured full funding for 60,000 new university and college spaces in 2011
- successfully renewed funding for early outreach and access initiatives in Ontario communities and post-secondary institutions in 2011
- successfully lobbied for $310 million in additional funding for 20,000 new post-secondary spaces in 2010
- successfully lobbied for $81 million in student financial assistance improvements in 2010, including:
- six-month interest-free grace period before loan repayment begins
- doubling of exemption for income earned during school
- 7% increase in OSAP loan maximum
- implementation of Repayment Assistance Plan to cap and manage student debt
- tying the OSAP maximum assessment for textbook and supply costs to the rate of inflation
- successfully lobbied for $600 million in 2011 and $150 million in 2009 for investments in university infrastructure
- advocated for $3.5 million to support students studying abroad
- successfully created the $500 Ontario Distance Grant and $150 Textbook & Technology Grant in 2008
- successfully lobbied for a two-year tuition freeze and associated funding for 2004-05 and 2005-06
- successfully advocated for improvements to financial assistance in the government’s Reaching Higher announcement in 2005, including new low-income tuition grants and higher assistance maximums
- successfully lobbied for $20.9 million in changes to student financial assistance in 2004, including:
- reducing the expected parental contribution
- updating the definition of “independent” student from five to four years
- increasing debt forgiveness for loans near default
- extending OSAP to accepted refugees
- successfully advocated for student representation on the review of higher education in Ontario (Leslie Church, former Executive Director of OUSA, sat on Advisory Panel) and fifteen of the 28 recommendations from the final report of the Post-Secondary Review reflected OUSA’s priorities as outlined in our submission
- successfully lobbied for a tuition cap in 2000 (at two per cent per year for inflation)
- created the framework for government regulations that restrict ancillary fee increases and rest decision making in the hands of students, and continually monitor university compliance
- persuaded the government to increase the allowable earnings threshold for students
- ensured student involvement in the development of the Quality Assurance Fund
- advocated to create the Ontario Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid (OACSFA)
- worked with the Alma Mater Society at Queen’s University to defeat tuition deregulation at the institution
successfully advocated for $74 million over five years in 2011 to develop a new credit transfer system that makes it easier for students to transfer between institutions
