Updated January 17, 2022: This paper has been combined with OUSA's "Accountability" policy paper. This policy can now be found here as Accountability and System Vision.
November 23rd, 2017
Toronto, ON - A policy paper released by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) this morning offers a broad stance on students’ vision on the ideal structure and function of Ontario’s post-secondary sector. Through evidence-based recommendations, this paper provides tangible policy options that protect the values of an affordable, accessible, high quality, and accountable university system.
The core concerns addressed in this paper are a lack of commitment to differentiation, inefficient capital expansion policies, non-sustainable funding models, and disassociated policy frameworks. OUSA provides government-facing recommendations to pursue moderate differentiation, promote efficient capital expansion, restore sustainable funding models, and integrate policy frameworks.
"Working alongside such a dedicated group of authors, we really had the opportunity to find areas for growth in Ontario's post-secondary education sector. As an ever-changing landscape, it is important for our students to continue to find opportunities for growth through differentiation, while simultaneously providing expansive experiential learning opportunities for all undergraduates," said Victoria Lewarne, Academic Affairs Commissioner at the Queen's University Alma Mater Society and author on the paper. "I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to contribute to the System Vision paper as a whole, and am thankful for all of those who came together at OUSA's General Assembly to make it all that it is.
At the heart of this paper is a vision for a public system of post-secondary education, in which students have the most important stake. OUSA believes the student voice in these principles should guide the future of a successful and sustainable university sector.
"The system vision paper set clear expectations on how the sector should function in key areas. This paper is important to our campus as it has a section on capacity expansion and satellite campuses. It establishes students' expectations from diverse campus formats and addresses various capacity issues in the sector," said Vipin Chandra Narra, Vice President University Affairs at the Trent Durham Student Association and author on the paper.
This paper was written by students from OUSA member associations and presented to the OUSA Fall General Assembly on October 29th for approval. To read the paper, please click here.
OUSA represents the interests of 150,000 professional and undergraduate, full-time and part-time university students at eight student associations a cross 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.
Deborah Lam
Operations & Communications Director
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
416-341-9948
[email protected]