NEWS RELEASE
April 4, 2025
OUSA releases policy paper titled “Responding to the Blue Ribbon Panel Report”
TORONTO - The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) is proud to release the first policy paper approved by OUSA’s Fall 2024 General Assembly, Responding to the Blue Ribbon Panel Report. The paper was written, approved, and published by students with suggestions to strengthen recommendations by the Blue Ribbon Panel in their initial report.
“The Blue-Ribbon Panel Report was pivotal in providing the provincial government with meaningful recommendations towards improving post-secondary sector sustainability. However, these recommendations failed to meaningfully integrate student perspectives,” said Michelle Wodchis-Johnson, the President of OUSA. “It is integral that the voices of students are embedded in future post-secondary policy changes to ensure the well-being of students and quality of education is prioritized.”
The Blue Ribbon Panel’s assessment of sector sustainability and the future of post-secondary education have been at the forefront of conversations with students and sector partners alike. This paper addresses student concerns regarding the Panel’s recommendations on provincial funding agreements, post-secondary cost-sharing ratios, student tuition, and financial aid. Students are concerned about the stagnant provincial contributions to institutional operating budgets, the overreliance on tuition dollars in said budgets, and the Panel’s lack of meaningful discussion of student financial aid.
The majority of institutions are reliant on student tuition to sustain operations, and the Panel’s recommendations did not suggest ways to balance this with provincial grants. The proposed solutions for increased revenue point back to increasing tuition without proportional financial aid, worsening the affordability of post-secondary education. The report also outlines substantive ways to remediate the stagnancy of provincial funding; however, students are still concerned about the provincial government’s commitment to maintaining the publicly assisted framework rather than working towards a publicly funded one.
In response to the Blue Ribbon Panel’s report, students have presented a detailed analysis of recommendations. These include bolstering student financial aid, increasing operating grants to improve cost-sharing ratios, and investing in the deferred maintenance fund to improve the accessibility and safety of post-secondary campuses.
"The recommendations provided build on those of the Blue Ribbon Panel in a way that benefits the post-secondary sector’s financial health, and the financial health of students across Ontario,” said Broderick Norwich, Vice President of Government and Stakeholder Relations at the Wilfrid Laurier Students’ Union. “It is essential that the provincial government and stakeholders meaningfully engage with the student perspectives on sector sustainability and apply the solutions offered to combat the financial precarity Ontario’s post-secondary system is grappling with.”
This policy paper and its recommendations were developed by students at OUSA’s member schools. It was passed on October 27th, 2024 during OUSA’s Fall General Assembly.
- 30 -
About: OUSA represents the interests of 160,000 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.
Contact:
Tiffany Li Wu
Communications and Operations Coordinator
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance