Educated Investments: Safeguarding the Educational Experience

Students believe that a modern and robust university sector is critical to Ontario and while the 2016 Budget made great strides towards a more affordable and accessible post-secondary system with the changes to OSAP, we need to ensure the quality of education and experience of students is high. The publication and centralization of post-secondary data will enable smart, evidence based decisions, by policy makers and students alike. Taking further steps to making campuses free from sexual violence by creating a new Sexual Violence Prevention Unit in the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development offers a tangible step towards this goal. To make the university sector work for students (and work for Ontario) in creating the highly skilled workforce of the future, the government should create new partnerships and new incentive structures to promote and broaden experiential learning. Quality services will allow Ontario’s students to get the most out of their educational experience, and will greatly help reduce the non-financial barriers to postsecondary education.