“Our government believes in making institutions accountable for student success,” said Ross Romano, Minister of Colleges and Universities. “That’s why we are making sure Ontario’s publicly-assisted postsecondary institutions have a clear mandate that is focused on meeting the needs of students and equipping them to succeed in rewarding careers.”
Ontario recognizes that students and their families make tremendous sacrifices to attend college or university, and they make these sacrifices in order to find stable, high-quality jobs. Under the previous funding agreement, however, students were graduating with world-class degrees but were finding it difficult to secure stable employment in their field of study. The previous system was not working for students and needed to be driven by results.
The government is now embracing changes to its postsecondary education sector that are modern, forward thinking, and will lead to the high-quality jobs that Ontario’s graduates deserve. That is why we are ensuring funding for Ontario’s colleges and universities will now be more dependent on student outcomes.
The agreements, which are in effect from 2020-2025 introduce a new ‘made-in-Ontario’ performance-based funding model that places a higher weighting on student and economic outcomes — making the province a national leader in performance-based funding. By tying a portion of government funding to performance, Ontario is encouraging institutions to focus on their institutional strengths, to ensure that students and graduates have the real-world skills they need for rewarding careers.
“Placing a greater emphasis on outcomes will encourage colleges and universities to be more efficient and specialized, and to focus on what they do best,” said Minister Romano. “The new agreements will also encourage transparency and accountability by ensuring that the spending of public dollars results in positive economic outcomes for Ontario.”
The government will measure performance against a set of 10 metrics. Institutions will report on indicators such as graduate employment rates in related fields, experiential learning and graduate earnings.
The Ontario government recognizes that COVID-19 has caused challenges throughout our postsecondary sector. Knowing that postsecondary institutions are vital to Ontario’s economic recovery, the government has decided to delay the link of institutions funding to the performance metrics for two years (2020-21 and 2021-22). All other aspects of the agreements, including data collection, evaluation and publication, will continue as planned.
“I would like to thank our postsecondary education partners for their time and commitment to ensuring the new performance-based funding agreements were completed and signed despite the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Minister Romano. “Ontario’s colleges and universities are key to Ontario’s economic recovery. I am inspired by the tremendous achievements of Ontario’s world class postsecondary sector and look forward to the invaluable metrics and outcomes that will help drive future improvements in postsecondary education and lead to even greater student success.”