Ontario Minister of Universities and Colleges Jill Dunlop said she’ll be making an announcement shortly on post-secondary funding.
In an exclusive interview on Feb. 21, Dunlop said the announcement is expected to happen this week and will detail the province’s plans for post-secondary education. The announcement is relevant to Queen’s students concerned about the University’s current financial deficit.
“We’re working with the Blue-Ribbon recommendations, and I will be making announcements shortly on what that’s going to look like moving forward,” Dunlop said.
On Jan. 31, the Ford Government announced tuition for the next school year would remain frozen for post-secondary students. Dunlop said the decision ensures post-secondary education is affordable for students.
“By announcing a tuition freeze, we’re taking that burden off students and continuing the tuition freeze for another year to make [post-secondary education] affordable,” Dunlop said.
Queen’s claimed the tuition freeze would exacerbate its $48 million deficit in the University’s submission to the Blue-Ribbon . The Federal Government recently implemented an international student cap, which the Provincial Government claims was a surprise to them.
“It was something that was announced to us with no consultation, with the ministry or with post-secondaries. It was something we were all shocked by and now having to work on what the path forward will be for schools and what the allocations will look like,” Dunlop said.
The international student cap is expected to further exacerbate the decline in international student enrollment at Queen’s which contributed to the current deficit according to the University.
Dunlop confirmed she spoke to university presidents across Ontario “about a path forward” following the Federal Government’s announcement capping the number of international student issions across Canada.
Adil Shamji, Liberal critic for universities and colleges, said post-secondary institutions in the province are suffering.
“We see post-secondary institutions are suffering right now. They’ve been suffering for years and so have students. Ideally [the Ford government] would be acting on the Blue-Ribbon recommendations the moment those came out,” he said in an interview with The Journal.
Shamji believes the Ford Government’s inaction in the Universities and Colleges sector is why the Federal Government is stepping in with policies such as the international student cap.
“There is not a moment to lose. The Universities and our post-secondary institutions are being bled dry right now,” Shamji said.
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