@globeandmail: Students taking online-only classes at private postsecondary institutions in Ontario would no longer qualify for provincial government loans under a package of legislative changes the Progressive Conservatives will table next week to strengthen oversight of the beleaguered career college sector. The proposed overhaul will also require career colleges to have a physical location, prohibit third-party recruiters such as immigration consultants from setting up shop on campus and limit the runaway enrolment growth that sparked concerns about suspicious activity at half a dozen private colleges in the Greater Toronto Area. However, the province will not lift a freeze on loan disbursements to career colleges and their students earlier than next year, after the rules are tightened from the overhaul. Several career colleges say they won’t survive that long without their chief source of revenue: tuition paid through the Ontario Student Assistance Program, the province’s needs-based financial aid plan. Nolan Quinn, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, unveiled the proposed changes at a news conference Thursday. “Our legislation includes a suite of measures that will give the province stronger legislative powers to crack down on fraud, prevent abuse before it occurs and require transparent, student-focused results,” he said. Quinn paused OSAP payouts to private career colleges and their students in early October, after the initial findings of a third-party audit turned up serious concerns about how government aid was being used in the sector. Some of those concerns were forwarded to the Ontario Provincial Police. Career Colleges Ontario warned provincial officials as early as January 2023 that enrolment had skyrocketed at a small number of schools in a manner that smacked of “suspicious activity.” The association has been urging the government to resume OSAP payments to private colleges that are not suspected of wrongdoing as soon as possible. #Ontario #College #OSAP #OnPoli

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Friday 13 November 2026 01:11:08 GMT