Failing grade on colleges

The auditor general found that the Ministry of Education has no processes in place to inspect program delivery at private colleges, confirm qualifications of instructors, or identify the over-charging of students

If Ontario colleges have found themselves a golden goose, the province’s auditor general is rightly concerned about the conditions under which it’s being cared for and plucked.

Bonnie Lysyk, in her annual report this week, looked at the oversight of public and private colleges in Ontario.

What she found should alarm those troubled by the potential exploitation of young people’s dreams and the possible tarnishing of Ontario’s reputation.

The province has 24 publicly assisted colleges offering more than 3,000 certificate, diploma, degree and apprenticeship programs in fields such as applied arts, technology and business.

Last year, the province provided them with grant-based funding totalling $1.6 billion, with the schools also receiving revenue from tuition, ancillary sources, donations and more, for total revenue of $5.1 billion.

In recent years, colleges have increasingly relied for tuition revenue on international students to subsidize the costs of domestic students’ education, as well as their administrative costs and capital expenditures.

Between 2012-13 and 2020-21, public colleges experienced a 15 per cent decline in domestic enrolment, but an astonishing 342 per cent jump in the number of international students.

Last year, international students accounted for 30 per cent of Ontario’s college enrolment, but fully 68 per cent of tuition revenue, or about $1.7 billion.

For some colleges, Lysyk said, respectable balance sheets were due only to international students.

Meanwhile, the province’s 500 private colleges also appear to have noticed the cash available abroad.

The number of international students enrolled in private colleges — offering various certificate and diploma programs to about 159,000 students — jumped from 1,994 in 2015 to 10,368 in 2019, an increase of 420 per cent.

Still, the ministry paid little attention to such an unusual and significant enrolment trend, the report said. Nor does it have processes in place, Lysyk found, to inspect program delivery at private colleges, confirm qualifications of instructors, or identify the over-charging of students.

The auditor general is especially concerned about two things. First, the risks of such dependence, especially when 62 per cent of the international students at public colleges come from one country, India.

“We found that the ministry has not developed a single strategic plan for the sector to help mitigate the risk of a sudden decline in international students and the impact it could have,” Lysyk’s report said.

Second, she was troubled by the lack of oversight of agents recruiting students around the world on behalf of Ontario colleges.

The report looked at four colleges and found that none had a policy to guide either the selection or removal of recruitment agencies they hire.

“They have limited oversight of their thirdparty agencies to confirm whether those agencies are providing services with honesty and integrity,” it said.

In essence, Lysyk said, the reputation of Ontario and its college sector were at risk when third parties operating on their behalf could mislead and manipulate the youth of other countries.

Some of this can be remedied quite easily and, in the name of decency and the province’s good name, should be.

Lysyk’s other finding might help to explain the dependence of colleges on foreign money.

Ontario provides the lowest funding to public colleges for full-time domestic students of any province in Canada, she found.

All in all, a failing grade in a subject crucial to filling labour shortages and meeting the demands of a modern economy.