The Ontario government has launched an online database providing centralized course-to-course information for post-secondary students looking to transfer credits.
The ONTransfer.ca website was announced in mid-January and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities is in the early stages of developing the initiative’s functionality and offerings. Similar online transfer guides have been launched in previous years in British Columbia and Alberta.
“What we’re trying to put in place is a system-wide process that ultimately will involve all, hopefully, post-secondary institutions in Ontario,” said Brad Duguid, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
The new website will serve as an interactive guide, building on a static course-mapping initiative by the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer. ONCAT was established in 2011 among all 44 public post-secondary institutions in Ontario.
At this point, the University of Toronto, McMaster University, the University of Ottawa and Western University have not signed onto the ONTransfer initiative. Algonquin College, Cambrian College, Confederation College and St. Lawrence College are also not yet committed.
According to McMaster University’s provost, David Wilkinson, McMaster applied to join the database but a glitch along the way led to the university being excluded when the initiative was announced.
“We’re actually very interested in the credit transfer process. The best we can understand is there was a paperwork mix-up somewhere and the courses we accept for credit are not loaded on the database, so we’re in the process of fixing that,” Wilkinson said.
Siobhan Nelson, the University of Toronto’s vice-provost (academic), said the university will be “watching how the mobility and student success rolls out” before participating in the initiative.
“We want to see the concept tested before we go into it fully,” Nelson said. The University of Toronto is part of another credit transfer consortium established in 2011 among seven research-intensive universities in Ontario known as the ‘G7’.
“We looked at our records of where students are transferring into our programs and what courses they are taking credit for. That actually accounts for most of the credit transfer requests the U of T gets,” Nelson said. “Our key issue is we want to make sure we facilitate student success and credit transfer in equal measure.”
A separate consortium for engineering transfers is in the works, again linking the universities in the G7. The consortium would provide transfer pathways primarily among first- and second-year engineering courses.
The ONTransfer initiative, part of a $73.7 million investment by the Ontario government over five years, will unfold alongside the government’s push for greater differentiation among post-secondary institutions. As universities and colleges develop further in niche areas, they will also be expected to find commonalities in course offerings and provide more opportunities for student mobility. How that process will unfold remains to be seen.
“It’s a question that we [at McMaster] ask ourselves and we also engage the ministry on, because the ministry is pushing universities to be differentiated one from another in a number of ways,” Wilkinson said. “So the more we become differentiated, the more difficult it is to imagine a credit transfer system that treats courses that look similar at different universities as being ‘equivalent’ in both content and quality.”
One major challenge in determining course equivalencies is tracking what happens when courses at different universities change year to year.
“When you think about this over time, maintaining the currency of that database is an issue. I think for that reason this will develop perhaps more slowly than you might otherwise imagine, because we do need to make sure that when we accept an equivalence of a course it’s actually the same course that we evaluated,” Wilkinson said.
The ministry estimates that about 21,500 post-secondary students transfer between Ontario post-secondary institutions annually, and that transfer pathways have doubled to 600 over the past two years. By 2015, the ministry intends to “implement a well-established, province-wide credit transfer system” that would “expand and improve” post-secondary transfer pathways.
Lindsay Purchase
The Cord
WATERLOO (CUP) — Ontario’s universities will soon be competing for more than just students — they’ll be fighting for more space to put them. In December, the province released its Major Capacity Expansion Policy Framework, which provides guidelines for interested universities to put forth proposals for satellite campuses.
“We made a commitment to engage in capacity expansion to meet the needs of future growth in our system and a number of institutions … have expressed interest in putting project proposals together. And there was a need to provide them with a level of stability and certainty going forward in determining timing,” said training, colleges and universities minister Brad Duguid.
Duguid said that a call for proposals will likely go out in early 2014. The policy document outlines a number of characteristics it is looking for from applicants. This includes the ability for a new campus to accommodate growth of 5,000 to 10,000 students over the next twenty years, provide additional facilities of at least 70,000 square feet and address geographic gaps in capacity.
“So we want to make sure these expansions take place in the areas where growth is taking place in the province and where there’s the greatest need for students in the province for post-secondary institutions,” Duguid continued. “And we also want to make sure that the growth occurs in a way that’s reflective of our principles regarding differentiation, that it meets the needs of our students and our economy.”
Differentiation, he explained, does not necessarily mean that a university must offer something different, but must fill a gap. Cost-effectiveness and benefit to the local economy were also highlighted as advantages. Dugid said that while universities appear to be the focus of growth needs, colleges could also put forth proposals. He also noted that the main purpose is to accommodate growth, so funding expansions on current campuses is a possibility.
“These ultimately have potential to be substantial expansions, but if there are projects on existing campuses that accommodate this, that would be open for consideration within the competitive process as well,” he said.
A number of post-secondary institutions have expressed interest in campus expansions and have been waiting for more direction from the Ontario government. Laurentian University, in Sudbury, is one, hoping to expand into Barrie. Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo is another university whose administration has been pushing for a satellite campus, which it recently outlined in a draft Strategic Mandate Agreement submitted to the province in accordance with its new differentiation policy.
“We were pleased that the guidelines were released,” commented Brian Rosborough, senior executive officer for the WLU Brantford campus. “We were anxious to see what the government’s process would be for applying for new campuses.”
Rosborough said he believes a Milton campus would align well with the government’s stipulations, as there is no university in the Halton Region, of which Milton is a part, and it is undergoing substantial population growth.
“The fact that we based our proposal on sort of good public policy ideas around growth and addressing the infrastructure gap that exists there, I think our chances are pretty good,” he said.
Rosborough added that the presence of a university campus would also help Milton transition to a more knowledge-based industry. While a specific timeline has not been announced for proposals to be examined and construction would certainly be a ways off, Duguid assured that the turnaround would be quick.
“We wanted to make sure that those institutions that were considering projects had an idea ahead of time so they can start preparing and the institutions are aware that—we don’t have a date yet—sometime in 2014 we expect to put out a request for proposals,” he said. “We look forward to seeing what comes about.”
The Ontario Liberals announced on Jan. 20 that they are extending the ‘30 per cent off’ tuition grant eligibility to cover about 5,000 more students.
Co-op students in their final year of a five-year program and students in private postsecondary institutions who qualify for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) are now also eligible for a 30 per cent off rebate on their tuition.
“For co-op students, while their program lasts five years [instead of four], a good part of that is taken up by work experience. When the 30-off tuition program was originally constituted, this was kind of an anomaly that was determined afterwards,” said Brad Duguid, minister of training, colleges and universities.
In spite of the expanded eligibility requirements, provincial student lobbying groups have pointed out perceived shortcomings of the program.
After the announcement, the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario released a statement saying they do not support the extension of the grant to students in private career colleges and institutions.
“The issue is that the government is funding private institutions rather than prioritizing public postsecondary education and making it more affordable,” said Anna Goldfinch, national executive representative for the CFS-Ontario.
Goldfinch expressed concern over the ministry’s oversight of private career colleges, referencing public scrutiny over the ministry’s enforcement of the Private Career Colleges Act. In 2009, for instance, the Ontario Ombudsman’s office found that the ministry had “inadequate oversight” of Bestech Academy Inc. The owner had falsely advertised the academy as a registered private career college.
The CFS-Ontario maintains that while the expansion of the grant could help 5,000 more students, the funds would be better allocated to institutions’ operating grants toward a 30 per cent reduction of tuition over three years.
Duguid said the Ontario government is committed to providing targeted funding to lower-middle income students in the form of financial assistance.
“We want the funding that we’re providing to lower-middle income students to go directly to those students, rather than the institutions. That’s what’s important about the 30 off grant,” Duguid said.
Spencer Graham, vice-president (education) for the MSU and a member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance’s steering committee, said he was surprised the government would extend the grant eligibility to students in private career colleges. However, he said OUSA still supports the expansion of the grant.
“OUSA believes increases to base operating budgets is important and that remains a priority for us. That doesn’t mean we’re coming out against the increased Ontario tuition grant eligibility, because it does help students. It’s not necessarily an either-or,” Graham said.
OUSA continues to lobby for expansion of the tuition grant. The grant currently covers students who attend college or university up to four years after they graduate from high school, and those in a five-year co-op program.
“That policy serves as a barrier to a number of students who attend postsecondary education after the four years after high school are up,” Graham said.
“Particularly this speaks to students who have dependents and children. We also see that Aboriginal learners tend to wait a number of years before entering postsecondary education. The grant doesn’t cover those two types of students, who face particular barriers,” he said.
OUSA’s pre-budget submission to the Ontario government also recommends that the grant should offer 35 per cent off tuition, up from 30 per cent.
Currently, eligible students can save $1,730 in tuition on average for degree programs and $790 for diploma or certificate programs. The deadline to apply for the grant for the winter semester is March 1, 2014. According to the Ontario government, 230,000 students received the tuition grant last year. About 310,000 were eligible before the expansion of the program.
This article was originally published on the Canadian University Press's newswire.
The provincial government announced a new tuition framework last Thursday that allows Ontario universities to increase tuition fees by an average of 3 per cent starting this year.
Though the number is down from the previous framework’s 5 per cent allowance, groups including OUSA, CFS-Ontario and the MSU aren’t satisfied with any increases above inflation.
“It is disappointing that the provincial government has not tied tuition to a more fundamentally fair rate of inflation,” said Huzaifa Saeed, VP (education) of the MSU in a release.
“However, I respect the fact that the old framework was not continued, despite pressure from academic institutions to do just that.”
The new tuition framework will be in place for four years, and the 3 per cent limit on tuition increases applies to most full-time arts and science and college programs. The increase is above Ontario’s average rate of inflation, which is 2 per cent over 10 years.
Tuition for professional and graduate university programs and high-demand college programs are allowed to increase by up to 5 per cent, down from 8 per cent.
According to Saeed, the MSU will now divert its efforts to lobbying for more government investment in the financial aid system. Specifically, the MSU will advocate for eligibility expansion for the 30 off tuition grant and a lower debt cap on the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant.
In a statement responding to the Province’s announcement, OUSA says the new framework “makes progress” toward a more affordable system but has not adopted key recommendations made by students.
OUSA recommended last fall that the government freeze tuition for at least a year and increase per-student funding at the rate of inflation.
CFS-Ontario recommended this past February that tuition fees be reduced by 30 per cent over the next three years.
