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The Price of Knowledge contains a wealth of information about access and student finance at the national, provincial and local levels. Some notable findings of interest to Ontario include:
Summer Employment income
2001 summer employment income among students who had earnings in Ontario was $4,300, as compared to $4,000 at the national level.
In-school employment rates
In Ontario, 65% of students worked during the school year, as compared to the national average of 63%.
Government aid
Total provincial government student aid in Ontario in 2002/03 was $385,275,577, composed of $17,266,676 in grants and $368,008,901 in loans.
22,545 Ontario students received provincial grants in 2002/03, while 132,720 received loans.
The average amount of a provincial student loan in 2002/03 was $3,522, an increase of 12.1% since 1995/96.
The average amount of a provincial grant in 2002/03 was $766, a decline of 62.9% since 1995/96.
Cost of total government student aid
The Government of Ontario spent $234 million on student assistance in 2002/03, much of which was spent on the province’s loan remission program.
Government spending on institutions
Government spending on post-secondary institutions in Ontario in 2002 was $3,131,046,698 (in 2003 dollars).
Across Canada, total provincial spending on institutions has increased by 2.7% in between 1990 and 2002. Ontario experienced a 14.2% decrease in government spending on institutions in the same period.
Attainment Rates
Ontarians between the ages of 20 and 24 had a university attainment rate of 14.7%, slightly above the national rate of 13%. Ontario’s rate was the country’s second-highest, behind Nova Scotia.
The college attainment rate for the same age cohort was 19.9%, somewhat short of the national figure of 26%.
In Canada, the combined (college and university) attainment rate in 2001 was 39% - slightly more than the combined rate of 34.5% in Ontario.
Ontarians between the ages of 25 and 44 had a combined attainment rate of 59.1%, as compared to the national figure of 58%. The university attainment rate of 27.2% was the highest in the country for this age group; the corresponding national figure was 24%.
Incidence and amount of student debt
40.7% of the Class of 2000 university graduates in Ontario had government student loan debt, compared to the national average of 42%. The average amount of student debt among Ontario graduates who borrowed was $21,700; the national average was $18,900.
17.7% of Ontario university graduates had student loan debt in excess of $25,000, compared to 13.4% at the national level.
The incidence of student loan debt among college graduates in Ontario was the second lowest in the country at 35.6%; the national figure was 38%. However, the average amount of student debt among Ontario graduates was the second highest in the country at $15,400; the national average was $12,700.
7.5% of Ontario college graduates had student loan debt in excess of $25,000, compared to 5% at the national level.
Repayment rates
Ontario students repay their student loan debts faster than any other group of students in the country. In Ontario, the average amount of student loan debt repaid within 2 years of university graduation was $7,100, well above the national average of $4,500. This also holds true for college graduates, where provincial repayment of $4,400 exceeded the national average of $3,400.
On average, Ontario university graduates repaid 32.0% of their student debt within 2 years of graduation, compared to the national average of 26.7%.
College graduates in Ontario repaid 29.3% of their student loan debt within 2 years, compared to the Canadian norm of 27.4%.
Graduate employment rates
The full-time employment rate among Ontario university graduates in 2000 was 73.4%, slightly above the national rate of 73%. The corresponding experience for college graduates was similar, with a provincial employment rate of 78.2% compared to the national figure of 77%.
The employment rate for university graduates has risen among Canada as a whole by 6 percentage points between 1995 and 2000; Ontario experienced an increase of 6.4 percentage points in the same period.
Canadian college graduates have experienced a rise in employment rates of 7 percentage points between 1995 and 2000; college graduates in Ontario experienced a 7.2 percentage point increase in the same period.
Graduate incomes
In 2003, the average university graduate salary in Ontario was $42,100. The national average was $41,400.
College graduates in Ontario had an average salary of $29,400. The 2003 national figure was $29,200.
Graduate migration
Ontario experiences a net in-flow of university graduates each year equivalent to 1.4% of the size of its graduating university class; it also experiences a net out-flow of college graduates equivalent to 2.9% of its college graduating class.
Aspirations
In all jurisdictions, of those parents wishing their children to pursue post-secondary education, aspirations for university exceeded those for college. The percentage of Ontario parents who indicated having aspirations for their children to attend university was 74.8%, slightly above the national average of 71.8%. 17.6% of Ontario parents had aspirations for their children to attend college, as compared to 16.5% of parents across Canada.
In Ontario 54.0% of parents reported saving for their children’s post-secondary education, slightly above the national figure of 50%.
Enrolment
In 2002/03, Ontario had university enrolments of 366,040 and college enrolments of 221,493 for a total post-secondary enrolment of 587,533.
University enrolment in Ontario experienced an increase of 31% between the 1999-2000 and 2003-2004 academic years, the second-largest increase in the country (behind British Columbia). The corresponding national figure was a 20% increase.
The number of university students in Ontario has increased by 28% since 1990/91, as compared to the national increase of 13.3% in the same period.
Ontario college enrolment has increased by 18.4% since 1990/91, compared to a national increase of 3.5%.
Total enrolment in post-secondary education in Ontario has grown by 15.4% since 1990/91, while Canada as a whole experienced a 9.1% increase in enrolment over the same period.
Participation-Rate
The 2002/03 university participation rate among 18-21 year-olds in Ontario was 23.7%; the corresponding rate for the country as a whole was 19.7%. The provincial participation rate increased by 4.9 percentage points between 1990/91 and 2002/03, as compared to an increase of 3.2 percentage points nationally.
The college participation rate in Ontario among 18-21 year-olds was 12.9%, which falls slightly short of the 14.3% national figure. This participation rate increased by 3.1 percentage points between 1990/91 and 2002/03, slightly more than the national average increase of 2 percentage points over the same period.
Ontario’s post-secondary participation rate in 2002/03 was 36.6%, slightly above the national figure of 33.9%.
Ontario’s total post-secondary education participation rate has increased by 8.0 percentage points between 1990/91 and 2002/03, while the country as a whole experienced growth of 5.2 percentage points over the same period.
Inflow /Outflow
Ontario experienced a very small net in-flow of students from other provinces, with 231 more students entering the province than leaving it to pursue higher education.
Ease of Access
In Ontario, the 2002/03 average entering mark for first year university students was 82.7%, and 85.7% of entrants had marks above 75%. The corresponding national figures are 83.6% and 88%, respectively.
Tuition
The average Ontario university undergraduate tuition in 2003/04 was $4,923, which was second-highest in the country behind Nova Scotia, and considerably more than the Canadian national average of $4,025.
University tuition in Ontario has increased by 126.4% in real dollars since 1990/91. The corresponding change at the national level was 112.4%.
In 2003/04 the average college tuition in Ontario was $1,820, which was below the average Canadian tuition (excluding Quebec) of $2,133.
College tuition in Canada (excluding Quebec) has increased by 118.2% (in real dollars) since 1990/91, while Ontario college tuition has risen by just 90.1% over the same period.
Summer Employment rates
The 2003 summer employment rate for students (18 - 24) in Ontario was 66.2%, which falls short of the national rate of 67.6%. Summer employment rates have fallen sharply in Ontario (by 11.8 percentage points) since 1990, compared to a national drop of 6.4 percentage points in the same period.
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