Ontario is getting tough on illegal private colleges and other fly-by-night operations that rip off students. The Canadian provincial government, in a news release issued this week, said such colleges would face fines of up to a quarter of a million Canadian dollars "for taking advantage of students."
The fines will also apply to businesses that offer unapproved courses or that misrepresent themselves.
The province is increasing its team of inspectors who will have the power to levy fines, but it also wants people to act as watchdogs and complain about any shady practices. It is also starting a public-awareness program to alert potential students about unregistered private colleges.
"We will use every enforcement tool at our disposal to protect students and put a stop to businesses masquerading as legitimate colleges," said John Milloy, minister of training, colleges, and universities, in a written statement. "We're taking action to make sure these businesses put student protection first."
The government came under fire last summer in a scathing report by the provincial ombudsman, who said Ontario was "abjectly inept" in policing rogue institutions and had never filed charges against any such college. The provincial government agreed it must make changes and began working on new regulations.
Ontario has the most postsecondary institutions of any province in Canada, with 580 registered private colleges as well as an extensive network of public universities and colleges. The new fines would not apply to the publicly financed community colleges or to providers of religious vocational training.
Comments
1. princeton67 - October 29, 2009 at 08:00 pm
And Canada doesn't even have the football and/or basketball factories that masquerade as colleges down here in the USA
2. sacroiliac - October 29, 2009 at 08:30 pm
Ummmm, not to rain on the parade, but "colleges" and "universities" mean entirely different things in Canada to what the terms mean in the USA. It seems that this story deceptively fudges on this meaning and does a major disservice to the credibility of the CHE. In particular, this story has absolutely nothing to do with the university system in Canada. I leave it to the CHE to fill in the details and correct any/all misconceptions.
3. rossirwin - October 29, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Sacroiliac is correct. There is an entirely different meaning in Canada between College and University. A little search on the internet will provide you with the differences.
4. 22133663 - October 30, 2009 at 10:38 am
"And Canada doesn't even have the football and/or basketball factories that masquerade as colleges down here in the USA"
And which schools are those? I'm not aware of any universities that have top notch football and/or basketball programs that lacks top notch academics.