Universities help drive our economy and create the future success of our students. To fulfill this essential mission, they need proper public funding.

Currently, Ontario’s university system receives 35 per cent less per-student funding than it did four decades ago. Ontario lags behind Canada and its competitors in the United States in funding dollars. The picture is clear: our universities are under-funded, compromising their ability to deliver a high quality educational experience.

Tuition is too high. Class sizes are too big, and students are unable to interact with their professors. Classrooms, labs and libraries are deteriorating. Basic research is threatened.

That’s not quality education. It’s not good for students, for society, or for our economy.

Investing another billion dollars a year —less than one per cent of the Ontario Budget— would mean affordable tuition and smaller classes, with students having more individual attention from faculty. Not to mention modern facilities, up-to-date laboratories and equipment, well-stocked libraries, and cutting-edge research and innovation.

Ontario can do better. We have in the past and we must in the future.

The bottom line?

The Ontario government should invest an additional $1 billion a year in universities to:

• Improve student-faculty ratios, so students are able to connect with their professors;
• Support the high-level research our society needs to prosper;
• Repair deteriorating campus facilities and build the new facilities that burgeoning enrolments require; and
• Ensure that tuition is affordable.

TAKE ACTION

For further information, please see: Leading Higher; Funding for Ontario Universities