Education · 4 min
Students at Ontario's private career colleges got more OSAP grant money than university students
Students at private career colleges received 1,331 million dollars in OSAP grants in 2024-25, more than university students. Ontario has since moved career-college students to loans only and paused all OSAP payments associated with private postsecondary institutions during an audit.
In 2024-25, students at private career colleges received 1,331 million dollars in OSAP grants: about 994 million from Ontario and 338 million in federal grants paid through OSAP, The Canadian Press reported. University students got 1,068 million. Students at public colleges got 835 million. Ten years earlier, private career college students got 20 million, about 3 percent of all OSAP grant money.
OSAP is the Ontario Student Assistance Program. Grants are the part students don't pay back. The figures come from government records The Trillium obtained through freedom of information. The yearly series is rebuilt from the charts it published.
In February 2026 Ontario announced that career-college students would get all their provincial OSAP aid as loans, for programs starting on or after Aug. 1, 2026. Federal grants for full-time private college students also ended in August, The Trillium reported. On Oct. 6, the colleges minister, Nolan Quinn, paused all OSAP payments associated with private postsecondary institutions while the accounting firm KPMG audits the program. The government told the Auditor General and referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police. Quinn said early findings included colleges sharing locations with immigration services firms and "unusually high concentrations of OSAP applications submitted from the same geographic locations." The statement does not name any school, and none of the allegations has been proven in court.
How fast did it grow?
Private career colleges had 8 percent of OSAP grant dollars in 2017-18. They had 28 percent in 2023-24 and 40 percent in 2024-25, a jump of almost 12 points in one year.
The number of students getting a grant at these colleges went from 25,678 in 2021-22 to about 87,400 in 2024-25, 3.4 times as many. Over the same three years, recipients rose 3 percent at universities and 10 percent at public colleges.
Why is the average grant so much bigger?
The average private career college grant was 15,236 dollars in 2024-25. At public colleges it was 6,910 and at universities 5,665. In 2017-18, the private average was 1.85 times the university average. By 2024-25 it was 2.7 times.
OSAP grants depend on need, program length and costs, so a bigger average doesn't prove anything improper. It does explain the gap between 21 percent of students and 40 percent of dollars.
How concentrated was the money?
Ontario doesn't publish grants by school, but three sets of records point to a small group. The Trillium reported that about half of all OSAP funding for private-college students in 2024-25 went to 10 of 177 institutions. The Canadian Press reported that seven career colleges got about 385 million dollars in provincial OSAP grants that year. Career Colleges Ontario, the industry association that processes OSAP applications for career colleges, told the ministry in January 2025 that ten schools had seen applications rise 855 percent on average from 2022 to 2024. One went from 107 applications to 2,992.
These come from different records, so they are not added together.
What does the enforcement record show?
Ontario's public enforcement file says little about OSAP. It lists restraining orders, financial penalties, compliance orders and refusals, suspensions or revocations of registration under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005. From 2018 to 2025 it has 4 to 10 a year involving registered colleges. Actions against unregistered operators peaked at 20 in 2022 in that period. The file doesn't track OSAP eligibility or fraud, so it can't say how closely the money was watched.
Which schools are on the OSAP list?
Ontario's OSAP school search lists the schools whose students can use OSAP. On Oct. 7, the 2025-26 list had 304 Ontario entries, including 226 private career college campuses and 18 other private schools. The 2026-27 list had 60, all public.
That is a snapshot. The search page says Ontario's private schools "are approved annually," usually in early to mid-summer, and a school not listed is "currently not approved." On Oct. 7, no private school had been approved for 2026-27. The Oct. 6 statement says private schools will have to meet "stricter criteria before regaining OSAP eligibility."
What is still unknown?
- A restart date. None has been given.
- How many students are affected. No count has been published for this year. In 2024-25, more than 87,000 students at private institutions got OSAP, The Trillium reported. The 2025-26 OSAP list had 226 career-college campuses and 18 other private schools in Ontario.
- How schools get back in. The province says "stricter criteria" are coming, without details. It also plans a law to bar mostly-online career-college programs. It has not become law.
- Help for students now. The province says it is working with banks on low-interest loans. There is no timeline.
