The Drop Fees campaign calls for changes to be made to current government post-secondary education policy that will positively benefit students and the sector in general. This semester, students will have the perfect opportunity advocate for these as 2009 marks the end of the Reaching Higher framework for higher tuition fees. To recommend a new policy framework, the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy has established a secretariat.

In June, the Federation made a submission to the secretariat to accompany the first meeting between Federation representatives and the secretariat chair Leah Myers. The submission is available for download below. For copies of this document, please contact your local students' union or email

Every year, Federation representatives present a submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs' Pre-Budget Consultation.

From the submission:

Summary of Recommendations
Access to post-secondary education is more important than ever to enhancing Ontario’s competitiveness, increasing its standard of living, and reducing socio-economic inequalities. In uncertain economic times, it is imperative that education be made a priority. A highly educated population is key to a healthy economy. Yet, access to post-secondary education continues to be undermined by high tuition fees, student debt and a lack of adequate funding.

This comprehensive analysis of the current state of higher education in Ontario contains a series of recommendations to the Government of Ontario designed to ensure equality of access and a healthy economy.
Students’ recommendations are as follows:

1. Increase Ontario’s per-student funding for post-secondary education above the national average.

2. Replace public-private partnerships with adequate core funding that will allow public institutions themselves to determine educational and research priorities.

3. Invest $1.45 billion per year to hire 6,600 new faculty until Ontario’s student-faculty ratio is brought 3. up to the national average.

4. Allocate dedicated funds for northern post-secondary education institutions to redress any funding 4. inequities of the past and to provide enhanced access and educational opportunities for students from Northern Ontario.

5. Provide full and equitable per-student funding for all of Ontario’s public colleges and universities.

6. Introduce a plan to fund the remaining $1.7 billion in deferred maintenance at Ontario colleges and 6. universities with environmental sustainability as a core principle.

7. Invest $326 million per year to allow colleges and universities to roll-back tuition fees to 2004 levels, and keep them frozen, with no reduction in institutional operating revenue.

8. Introduce a new framework for tuition fees that prioritises affordability, opportunity and equity through the progressive reduction of tuition fees. Students must be included in the consultation process as the framework is developed.

9. Study the impact of fee increases on participation rates amongst racialised and other marginalised people.

10. Establish a Tuition Fee Increase Prevention Fund increase the general operating grants to colleges and universities and require that these be used to freeze fees and improve the quality of post-secondary education.

11. Match federal funding for the Fund with an allocation from the provincial government.

12. Strengthen prohibitions against the use of ancillary fees to fund the operating costs of our colleges and universities.

13. Apply the money allocated to the Textbook and Technology Grant directly to reducing tuition fees.

14. Centralise responsibility for the Student Access Guarantee through a grants programme and publish a yearly report on its results.

15. Reduce tuition fees that are charged to international students and provide corresponding public re-investments to universities and colleges.

16. Restore Ontario Health Insurance Program coverage for international students.

17. Convert a portion of every student loan into an upfront need based grant.

18. Reduce interest rates on student debt to prime.

19. Make the Ontario Student Assistance Program, and any accompanying grants, available to part-time students as well as those in graduate and professional programmes.

20. Reject all Income Contingent Loan Repayment schemes and any other financial aid measures designed to enable tuition fee increases.

21. Reinstate reduced graduate student post-residency fees.

22. Eliminate differential tuition fees for graduate and professional programmes.

23. Tie Ontario Graduate Scholarship increases to graduate student enrolment growth.

24. Expand scholarship eligibility provisions to include more international students.

25. Provide additional funding to universities to cover the costs of requirements associated with increases to graduate level enrolment, including hiring additional faculty to teach and supervise graduate students.

26. Fund the development of a province-wide credit evaluation and transfer facilitation system by $2 million.

27. Support the establishment of a Post-Secondary Education Transfer by the federal government for the purposes of reducing tuition fees and improving teaching, learning, and research at public colleges and universities.

28. Support the establishment of a Canada Post-Secondary Education Act by the federal government to be administered by a federal Department of Post-Secondary Education and Research.

29. Fund the development of a province-wide credit evaluation and transfer facilitation system by $2 million.

On the November 5 Student Day of Action to Drop Fees, over 10,000 students took to the streets in Ontario to demand a more affordable and accessible system of post-secondary education.

Students in 14 cities: Windsor, London, Guelph, Hamilton, Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, Peterborough, Orillia, Kingston, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Thunder Bay demonstrated to show that tuition fees are too high and that it is time for the government to DROP FEES.

If there are pictures from actions across Ontario, please send them to communications@cfsontario.ca to have them uploaded to the website.

Drop Fees is a growing campaign of students, families, campus workers and allies who are working together to build a lasting movement for a new post-secondary education system. It’s not a surprise that students and their families are proposing alternatives.

Ontario is ranked last for per-student funding in Canada. Ontario students face the highest tuition fee hikes; we are charged high ancillary fees and we face growing class and tutorial sizes. Students are in learning environments that are being manipulated by privatisation and treated as revenue generating units by their college and university administrators.

The good news is that this is the final year of the McGuinty government's "Reaching Higher" framework for tuition fee increases. The government has promised to review the system, but we are tired of students not being put first. This campaign is intended to empower students, families and allies to have their say and demand a new plan for the post-secondary education system; one that is based on access, equity and fairness.

The Drop Fees campaign is initiated by the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, the student organisation representing over 300,000 college and university students across Ontario.