Ontario has frozen Ontario Student Assistance Program payments across the province’s entire private postsecondary sector even though the government says many of the integrity concerns uncovered so far are concentrated in online-only programs and a relatively small number of institutions.
The province announced the blanket pause while KPMG continues an audit of OSAP applications at private postsecondary schools. Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn said preliminary findings raised concerns involving common ownership structures, immigration-services firms, weak student and enrolment verification, and clusters of applications submitted from the same geographic areas.
Ontario also referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police and notified the Auditor General. Quinn told reporters the OPP referral was made on October 2.
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The financial concentration behind the review is significant. The Trillium reported that more than 87,000 students at private institutions received nearly $2.4 billion in OSAP grants and loans in 2024-25, with about half of funding to private colleges going to students at 10 of the 177 listed institutions.
The Canadian Press found from freedom-of-information records that seven career colleges alone accounted for roughly $385 million in OSAP grants in 2024-25, equal to the amount received by students at all Ontario publicly funded colleges. Career colleges also accounted for 95% of the year-over-year increase in OSAP grants that year.
The province had already removed six campuses from OSAP eligibility after issuing notices of non-renewal in May. Three Academy of Learning locations are challenging their exclusion in court. Government inspection reports filed in those cases alleged problems including shared account access, unusually rapid course completion, and difficulties verifying some students’ participation.
The schools deny most of the allegations and say they have strengthened compliance controls. None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Despite those targeted enforcement actions, the new payment pause reaches institutions that have not been identified as part of the alleged misconduct. Career Colleges Ontario said the policy is affecting students across the sector and argued that enforcement should focus on parties responsible for improper conduct. The Canadian Press reported that Mothercraft, an early-childhood education provider whose executive director described its compliance record as strong, is among schools facing OSAP uncertainty.
Ontario says all private postsecondary institutions will have to meet stricter criteria before regaining OSAP eligibility. The government also plans legislation that would make predominantly online private career-college programs ineligible for OSAP and is discussing low-interest third-party loan options with financial institutions for students affected by the freeze.
