OSAP freeze for private career colleges to last until at least early 2027

Students at Ontario private career colleges likely won’t see an Ontario Student Assistance Program transaction in their bank accounts until at least the new year as the province works to implement tighter measures for OSAP approvals in 2027. 

The province froze OSAP funds to students at all private career colleges in Ontario on Oct. 6 after announcing a province-wide investigation into a handful of fraudulent private postsecondary institutions that the government says have gravely abused its student financial assistance system.

The province had been aware of the issue since 2024, according to an online statement from the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.

In a recent update, the ministry says investigators have been conducting in-person inspections into eight private career colleges through the independent third-party auditor KPMG. The province has not said which private career colleges are under investigation, but has said the transgressions go “beyond the career colleges that have been inspected to date and extend to the sector as a whole.” 

The ministry revealed Oct. 20 that it was working on a new validation process for OSAP approval at private postsecondary institutions for the 2026-27 academic year.

The new process is expected to be implemented in the new year, according to the ministry, once the provincial government has passed legislation to enhance OSAP integrity and oversight of private postsecondary institutions. The new measures would include an OSAP-enrolment cap, an exclusion of predominantly online-only programs and stricter student identification and verification controls. 

The ministry says it is exploring options with external financial institutions to help facilitate third-party loans for students.

For Kaitlynn Ford, that work has not been happening fast enough. A paralegal student at Ottawa’s Algonquin Careers Academy, a private career college affected by the OSAP freeze, Ford says she has only received a generic email regarding alternative options for funding.

“The Ontario government is working on options to provide low-interest, third-party loans for students enrolled at private postsecondary institutions and is in discussions with financial institutions to facilitate these loans. More information will be made available to students when ready,” read the email Ford received from the ministry’s operations division.

In a statement to the Ottawa Citizen, press secretary Bianca Giacoboni said that, while the ministry’s initial investigations focused on a few schools, since taking action to not renew OSAP at six campuses, in recent weeks the province has seen evidence of “systemic issues.”

“At this time, we do not have assurances from the audit team that the issues are not more widespread, leaving us with no choice but to pause OSAP payments to all private institutions to protect taxpayer dollars and hold bad actors accountable,” Giacoboni said. “We understand this is creating uncertainty for students and are working quickly to develop options for low-interest, third-party loans facilitated by financial institutions to help students through this period of transition.”

Algonquin Careers Academy president Des Soy said the school held a ceremony for slightly less than 300 graduates at a convention centre on Oct. 20. Soy is allowing current students affected by the OSAP freeze to continue their studies and to find creative payment solutions at a later date.

“The keynote (speaker at the ceremony) is a paralegal from about 10 years ago,” Soy said, adding that the school forged the path of many towards successful careers that help Ontario’s economy prosper. “He built a successful paralegal practice. He takes two to four students per year for their practicum placements.”

Keynote speaker Jeff Bogaerts’ daughter, Holly, was among the graduates from the same program Tuesday, who crossed the stage exactly 12 years after he did. Bogaerts’ granddaughter is now also almost though a Legal Assistants program at the same academy.

Bogaerts made a U-turn in his career trajectory after working as a Toronto Police Service constable and then in IT for 30 years after that.

Crossing the finish line and practising as a paralegal is also a dream for Ford, but that dream feels uncertain now. She says she is struggling to make ends meet following the province’s OSAP freeze on Oct. 6.

“Imagine being approved for a government loan and then not having the money to pay bills in your account only to be told they won’t be giving it to you because of something that had nothing to do with you three years ago. Now you have no money,” Ford said. “What would you do?”

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