Students present funding proposal to enhance quality in higher education

TORONTO , Feb. 3 /CNW/ - In anticipation of a new funding framework for Ontario's post-secondary education system, students are calling for an injection of funds to bring Ontario's per student funding from last in Canada to just above the national average. This and six other recommendations were formally presented to government today in a comprehensive submission called Our Bright Future: Funding and Quality.

"Ontario's students are paying the highest tuition fees while studying in the largest classes in the country," said Shelley Melanson , Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "In Ontario, students have the worst of both worlds because funding has not kept up with enrolment increases and students have been left to pay more as education quality falls behind."

Student presented their funding recommendations to government just days after a Statistics Canada report demonstrated the economic impact of high student debt on students and recent graduates. Their recommendations call on the McGuinty government to augment funding annually for colleges and universities to hire more tenure-track faculty, offer smaller classes and improve academic facilities.

"The Ontario government has the opportunity to make bold investments in a sector that will help Ontario recover from the current economic recession," said Melanson. "After years of increasing fees and decreasing quality, students can not continue to bear the brunt of educational underfunding."

Our Bright Future: Funding and Quality is one in a series of seven comprehensive policy documents that make recommendations on how the Ontario government can improve its framework for post-secondary education. While the most recent submission focuses on funding and quality, other submissions have targeted student assistance, tuition fees and graduate studies and research. Three more submissions, focusing on student engagement, credit transfer and northern education will be submitted later this month. All copies of Our Bright Future can be found at www.cfsontario.ca.

The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario unites more than 300,000 college and university students studying at public post-secondary institutions across the province.

For further information: Shelley Melanson, Chairperson, CFS-Ontario, [phone] or [phone] (cell); Joel Dull, Ontario Organiser, [phone] or [phone] (cell)