PRESS RELEASE
April 22, 2025
OUSA Responds to Provincial STEM Funding Announcement
TORONTO - Yesterday, the provincial government announced a $750 million investment to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) enrollment at colleges and universities across the province. Publicly assisted institutions will have access to this funding immediately once signing their 2025-2030 operating agreements, and it is expected to fund up to 20,500 STEM seats per year.
This marks the first investment since the province announced a $1.3 billion investment last year; $100 million of which was earmarked towards supporting STEM programs during the 2023-24 school year. This additional $750 million injection to the post-secondary sector is a welcomed investment and students appreciate the efforts made by the provincial government to invest in the sector in ways that will fulfill labour market demands. Ontario’s post-secondary is renowned not only for its strong STEM programs but also for its exemplary leadership in higher education as a whole. The skills, research, and innovations that come from STEM-based programs at our universities are pushing our communities and economies forward.
Notably, post-secondary in Ontario is in a financial crisis. We have seen cuts to several programs, and while STEM is generally underfunded, there must be attention paid to Business, Humanities, Health, Arts, Social Science and Education (BHASE) programs as well. As it stands, Ontario’s post-secondary education system receives the lowest per-student funding nationally and is heavily dependent on student tuition dollars to finance the operations of institutions. In the past two years alone, many larger institutions have closed or restructured BHASE programs due to lack of financial support from the provincial operating grants.
As reported in a recent HEQCO study, Ontario’s enrollment is expected to increase by 225,000 in the next 24 years across disciplines. Without appropriate funding to accommodate this steady growth, a greater burden will be placed on students whose tuition dollars, on average, account for 61% of institutional operating grants since overall per-student funding has not increased since 2017. When students cannot access post-secondary education in this province, Ontario loses highly-skilled and competent graduates to other jurisdictions.
Students across Ontario deserve access to quality post-secondary education in various areas of study that are robustly supported. With this announcement, institutions will have the financial means to bring students into STEM and provide greater access to resources. However, as the demand for an Ontario university education grows, so too should the per-student funding that the government provides across all programs.
In line with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel, OUSA recommends that the provincial government should implement a one-time increase of ten percent to operating grants, followed by an adjustment in line with consumer price index, or a minimum of two percent per annum. As well, the value of weighted grant units should be increased to reflect the variation in enrolment distribution for various programs and inflationary increases in program delivery costs since 2009.
Students are our future. Ontario universities have the opportunity to drive innovation and research, contribute to local economies, and diversify communities. As critical vessels for individuals to move up the socio-economic ladder and produce strong leaders for our workforce, investing in post-secondary education means investing in our future.
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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, high quality and equitable post-secondary education in Ontario.
Contact:
Tiffany Li Wu
Manager of Operations and Communications
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
416-341-9948 | [email protected]