Career college saw OSAP usage rise 6,000 per cent, but wasn’t cut off this spring

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TORONTO - An Ontario career college with four campuses saw the amount of students receiving financial aid explode over a few years, including an increase of nearly 6,000 per cent…

TORONTO - An Ontario career college with four campuses saw the amount of students receiving financial aid explode over a few years, including an increase of nearly 6,000 per cent at one campus, but it was not one of the schools the government cut off this spring.

The Canadian College of Business, Science and Technology, with campuses in the Greater Toronto Area, had 562 students accessing the Ontario Student Assistance Program in 2021-22, and three years later that number was 17,157, according to data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request.

One campus went from 74 students on OSAP in 2021-22 to 4,481 in 2024-25, an increase of 5,955 per cent. The amount of provincial grants for students at that one campus rose by more than 8,000 per cent in that timeframe, to $39 million.

The students at four campuses in total in that latter year accounted for about $151 million in provincial grants.

The vast majority of the growth in OSAP usage was driven by students enrolled in online programs, the data shows. More than 97 per cent of the students accessing OSAP at the school in 2024-25 were online, a stark difference from 2021-22, when six per cent of the students were studying online.

Critics question why the college was not among the six schools that Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn denied OSAP eligibility to this May.

Quinn at the time cut off four Academy of Learning locations and two campuses of Citi College of Canadian Careers, citing concerns about admissions practices. They are fighting the decision in court and deny any wrongdoing. Allegations made by the government have not been proven in court.

In early October, Quinn announced a pause on OSAP payments to all career colleges and other private post-secondary institutions while KPMG conducts an audit of the sector, with the minister saying there is now evidence of systemic concerns. He has not flagged specific schools as being under suspicion.

Quinn has come under fire in the…

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