More than $6 billion is spent annually on operating Ontario’s universities, of which students contribute over $2.7 billion. With such a substantial public and private investment in higher education, it is of paramount importance that this money be well spent. Asking students – the principal stakeholder of Ontario universities – what they want from their education should be a primary component of this exercise.
As part of the Canadian Student Survey, a bilingual survey conducted on 18 university campuses across Canada in the fall of 2009, over 10,000 full-time undergraduate students at seven Ontario universities provided their thoughts regarding priorities for and satisfaction with teaching quality, student financial assistance, institutional spending, student support services, and institutional governing bodies.