An organization that represents over 140,000 university students across Ontario on Friday recommended an ambitious agenda of long-term changes that included raising the OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Plan) maximum to $175 per week, formal instruction in teaching methods and practices to Phd students at a cost of $1 million and regulating tuition fee increases at the rate of inflation.
Dan Moulton, Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) president, said during the provincial government’s pre-budget consultations that “funding is the most important issue facing the post secondary education today.” He said OUSA’s new report, Higher Education: The Engine of Economic Recovery, “presents pragmatic solutions while recognizing the government’s tenuous fiscal solution.”
“Over the past five years, the Ontario government’s Reaching Higher Plan has invested $6.2 billion into the sector, yet much is left to do,” said the report’s authours. “As the government designs a new plan, it is crucial that steps are taken to improve the quality and accessibility of higher education.”
