Ontario Invests in Skills and Knowledge

Ontario is committed to ensuring that students have the opportunity to reach their full potential, so they can help the province compete and win in today's knowledge-based economy.

Over the last five years, Ontario's investments in postsecondary education have helped to boost annual enrolment in colleges and universities by 100,000 students.

To ensure students continue to receive a high-quality postsecondary education, the province is providing colleges and universities with an additional $150 million in one-time operating funding this year.

Toronto's Ryerson University, the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art and Design have received about $23.6 million of this additional operating funding:

• Ryerson University: $7.2 million

• University of Toronto: $16 million

• Ontario College of Art and Design: $397,956

HELPING STUDENTS REACH HIGHER

Through the government's Reaching Higher investments, operating grants to universities and colleges have increased by $1.7 billion, or about 63 per cent, since 2002-03.

Some of the other results of Reaching Higher include:

• Postsecondary enrolment is growing five times faster than it did in the 1990s.

• Thirty-nine per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are attending college or university today - up from 35 per cent in 2002-03.

• One-hundred, sixty-eight thousand students are benefiting annually from improvements made to OSAP in 2004-05, which include grants for students from low and middle-income families, a cap on student debt and support for students who need help to manage and repay their loans.

• One in four, or about 120,000 students in Ontario, is receiving a non-repayable grant.

• The percentage of undergraduate students completing university has increased to 78 per cent - up from 74 per cent in 2002-03.

• The percentage of students graduating from college has increased to 65 per cent - up from 57 per cent in 2002-03.