Opinion: Dollarama University: The Ford government approach to postsecondary education

Jonathan Malloy is the Bell Chair in Canadian Parliamentary Democracy at Carleton University. He is co-editor of The Politics of Ontario.

Higher education in Ontario can be very politicized these days, especially with controversies related to the Middle East. But less noticed are the unusual funding policies of the Doug Ford government that have created a new business strategy for Ontario postsecondary education: the Dollarama model.

Government funding of colleges and universities regularly goes up and down. But the Ford government has taken a unique approach by throttling revenue at both ends; freezing both government funding and tuition.

This both-ends approach is a significant change. In the 1990s Mike Harris years, Ontario colleges and universities saw major funding cuts. But tuition regulations were also loosened, allowing institutions to at least go out and hustle on their own. This tough love had some benefits, such as allowing elite business and law schools to compete with their international peers. But the current government has cut off that option with its tuition freeze since 2019.

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Tuition freezes are great for students and parents, especially in an inflationary environment. But someone’s got to pay, and institutions are feeling the same cost pressures. The government gave a sort of helping hand with its Bill 124 in 2019, capping pay increases. But Bill 124 was struck down as unconstitutional and the government repealed it last February and now institutions are worse off than ever, having to make retroactive pay increases.

Last year, a government-appointed blue-ribbon panel recommended annual increases in postsecondary funding going forward. But the government rejected most of its own panel’s recommendations, giving only small targeted injections. Premier Ford reiterated that tuition would remain frozen and said “We’re going to work with our colleges and universities to support them any way we can and drive efficiencies throughout the system.”

So this is the situation Ontario colleges and universities face: in business terms, their costs keep increasing, but they can’t raise their prices. The solution? Using the Premier’s own verb, drive down costs per unit. And that’s exactly what Ontario institutions are doing. They are turning into Dollarama.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Dollarama. I shop there. But, it’s Dollarama. You go there for bargains. The only kind of innovation at Dollarama is about wringing out costs, not creating beautiful or original or exclusive products. Apparently this is the Ontario government’s vision for postsecondary institutions.

Unable to increase revenue, colleges and universities are taking in more students as cheaply as possible. There’s no more economical model than stuffing 400 students into a room with a single lecturer at the front and evaluating through multiple-choice tests.

There are better ways to teach and learn. But they cost more. Everyone agrees the future is work-integrated learning, through placements and hands-on experience. But that doesn’t come cheap.

Institutions are also containing costs through volume. One of the reasons why Queen’s University finances hit the headlines last fall is because the university has tried to hold enrolment steady and retain its distinct campus culture. In contrast, the University of Guelph has been aggressively increasing enrolment, helping pay its bills but creating many unhappy students searching for housing.

One way around the Dollarama model is to develop separate business lines at a higher price point. This along with federal immigration policies explains the ridiculous ballooning of international students at Ontario colleges, since the tuition freeze does not apply to them. This excess is finally being reined in, but it takes a lot of nerve to criticize institutions for turning to the one option they’ve been given.

Institutions can also raise money through donations and external partnerships. But donors want to fund new things like scholarships, not to fix the roof or upgrade office software. Likewise, partnerships fuel new projects, but not back-office positions such as research accounting to keep up with the new activity. All the routine stuff needs to come out of base budgets, which depend on those capped government grants and tuition dollars.

Past and present Ontario governments like to talk about “differentiation” and “performance-based funding” that would reward institutions for innovation and doing it well. But just as Dollarama relies on uniformity and standardization, the Ontario funding model encourages everyone to offer the same education. There is little reward for risk, and sometimes big penalties for failure.

The government already has an alternative to the Dollarama model: its own blue-ribbon report, which advocated a sustainable approach that encourages institutions to bring in money through quality rather than “bums in seats.” But the government seems to have no interest in changing its approach. The Dollarama model of Ontario postsecondary education seems here to stay.