Breaking Barriers Submission (Click Image to View)

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TORONTO, January 24 /OUSA/ - Concerned that Ontario's colleges and universities remain less accessible to a number of underrepresented groups, a coalition of student organizations representing over 2.5 million Ontario students have joined together for the first time to recommend the creation of a new access strategy. Students call on the province to replace the current patchwork of access initiatives with a holistic access strategy that would involve multiple government ministries and tackle all access barriers simultaneously.

The call is contained in a report released today entitled Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Equal Access to Higher Education. Although Ontario has one of the highest post-secondary attainment rates, the report examines why thousands of low-income students, Aboriginal students, rural and northern students, students with dependants, and students whose parents did not attend higher education continue to be underrepresented in higher education, despite sincere efforts by government and post-secondary institutions to promote access.

"This government has demonstrated a commitment to improving access, and while some individual programs are making a difference, much more remains to be done," said Meaghan Coker, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). "With one voice, students are saying that we can and must do better."

To reverse this trend, the report lays out the framework for a holistic access strategy through forty-two recommendations covering six focus areas:

·      Expanding funding for community-based and institutional early outreach programs, such as Pathways to Education;

·      Helping students move within and between educational pathways through continued improvement to the credit transfer system and the implementation of bridging programs;

·      Better using the primary and secondary school system to guide and assist students in transitioning to higher education, for instance through an expansion of the successful dual credit program;

·      Increasing distance and online learning opportunities, specifically through the forthcoming Ontario Online Institute;

·      Improving the Ontario Student Assistance Program to provide more targeted, non-repayable grants, extend eligibility, and fix the broken need assessment formula; and

·      Strengthening college and university support programs for students from underrepresented groups.

Because seven of every ten new jobs will require a higher education, Premier McGuinty recently set a provincial target of 70 per cent post-secondary attainment. Given the numerous economic and social benefits of a well-educated populous, students fully support the Premier's target and stress that meeting this goal will require a concerted effort to close participation gaps.

Copies of the report are available at here. The report is co-authored by OUSA and its partners at the College Student Alliance and the Ontario Student Trustees' Association.  

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Click to view McMaster's Blue Chair video

Over the past few months, campuses across Ontario have been engaging students with OUSA's 4^th annual Blue Chair Campaign. OUSA's Blue Chair Campaign started in 2008 on all of OUSA's member campuses, with an aim to draw awareness and support for access strategies in Ontario.

As one of OUSA's main pillars, accessibility is incredibly important to students, as it allows us to advocate for those without a voice, and those who will take our place in the future. There are too many students and too many underrepresented groups who are unable to attend higher education in Ontario for any number of reasons. Income, parents, gender, race, region, motivation, and so much more factor into a students inability to attain or even seek post-secondary. OUSA's Blue Chair Campaign draws awareness to these issues through the use of empty blue chairs in classrooms, hallways, atriums, common spaces, and offices to remind students in university that while they were fortunate enough to be there, there are many who are far less fortunate.

Awareness of underrepresented groups alone will not drive change. Many of OUSA's campuses have events that raise funds to support early outreach programs, reaching out to students in high schools and in their communities. Many campuses raise funds for Pathways to Education and other great programs that have been shown to improve access to higher education.

As part of OUSA's bigger picture in tackling access, we have released Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Equal Access to Higher Education, outlining recommendations for a holistic strategy to improve access, instead of one-time programs that have very narrow and limited reach. Perhaps once these recommendations are implemented, a few more empty blue chairs will be filled.