Ontario Raises Serious Concerns About Several Private Career Colleges as OSAP Dispute Reaches Court

By: Ebenezer Adugyamfi & Emmanuel Ayiku for GhanaianNewsCanada
October 2, 2026

The Ontario government has raised serious concerns about the operations of several private career colleges, including allegations that some students may not have been actively completing the coursework associated with their programs.

The concerns have emerged through court documents filed as three Academy of Learning career-college locations challenge the province’s decision to prevent their students from accessing the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

According to inspection reports filed with the court, Ontario officials identified cases in which coursework appeared to have been completed unusually quickly and raised questions about whether the students enrolled in some programs were actually the people completing the work.

The colleges deny most of the allegations and have argued that they took corrective measures after government inspections.

The dispute comes at a particularly important time for Ontario’s private career-college sector, which has seen substantial growth in OSAP participation in recent years.

Data obtained through freedom-of-information requests show that students at only seven career colleges received approximately $385 million in provincial grants during the 2024-25 academic year — an amount roughly equal to the grants received by students at all publicly funded colleges across Ontario.

The government has since introduced major changes to OSAP, including removing career-college students from eligibility for provincial grants.

What inspectors found

The latest court documents focus particularly on three Academy of Learning locations: campuses in Toronto’s Bay Street area, Brampton East and North York.

Ontario officials inspected the schools after concerns emerged about unusual increases in the number of students receiving financial assistance.

One inspection report cited an example involving a student whose quizzes and final examination for a business writing course were completed on the same day.

According to the report, the final examination took approximately six minutes.

Government inspectors subsequently contacted students to determine whether they were actively participating in their programs.

The inspection reports describe what officials characterized as inconsistencies in some students’ accounts.

Among the concerns were students who reportedly could not identify their institution, program or courses, as well as students who said they attended classes in person even though they were enrolled in asynchronous online programs.

Inspectors also raised questions about whether some coursework was being completed by someone other than the student officially enrolled in the program.

The province described the concerns as involving student identity verification, admissions practices, attendance records and academic progression.

These are allegations contained in government inspection documents and court filings. They have not been established as findings of wrongdoing by a court.

The colleges dispute the government’s concerns

The Academy of Learning locations have challenged Ontario’s decision through a judicial-review application.

The schools argue that the provincial government acted unreasonably in determining that they should no longer be eligible for OSAP assistance.

They have also said that they took the government’s concerns seriously and introduced numerous corrective measures.

The schools argue that asynchronous education is designed to provide flexibility for students who may be working, raising families or otherwise unable to attend traditional classes at fixed times.

In court filings, the colleges said their programs serve a significant number of working adults, newcomers to Canada and people with family responsibilities.

They also argue that concerns identified by the ministry relate to challenges that can arise with asynchronous education generally and should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that the institutions failed to provide legitimate education.

The legal challenge means the government’s decision and the colleges’ response will ultimately be examined through the judicial process.

A warning came before the government action

The latest revelations show that concerns about unusual OSAP activity did not emerge suddenly.

Career Colleges Ontario, the industry association representing private career colleges, began warning the provincial government about potentially suspicious activity in OSAP applications as early as January 2023, according to documents filed in court.

The organization said it held several meetings with the ministry during 2023 to discuss the issue.

It later told the government that it had identified unusual growth in OSAP applications at a small number of institutions.

In a January 2025 letter, the association said its analysis of data from 2022 to 2024 identified 10 schools with anomalous increases averaging about 855 per cent over the two-year period.

One institution reportedly went from 107 applications in 2022 to 2,992 in 2024.

The association said some applicants had provided information that raised concerns about possible misrepresentation of eligibility and misuse of OSAP funds. Those concerns were referred to the ministry’s OSAP inspection and compliance unit.

Career Colleges Ontario also told the ministry in 2024 that it had asked for certain concerns to be referred to police.

However, the relevant portion of the correspondence was redacted in the court record, meaning the specific concerns and whether they related to any particular school are not publicly known.

Millions of dollars in student assistance

The financial scale of the issue has attracted significant attention.

Freedom-of-information records obtained by The Canadian Press show that approximately 14,800 students at three Academy of Learning franchise locations received more than $219 million in OSAP grants during 2024-25.

Across seven career colleges, provincial grants totalled approximately $385 million that year.

Those seven institutions also received approximately $137 million in federal grants for their students.

The figures help explain why questions about the integrity of student financial assistance have become an important issue for the provincial government.

Career college tuition can also be higher than tuition at publicly funded colleges, meaning the amount of financial assistance associated with some private institutions can be substantial.

Ontario changes OSAP rules

The controversy comes after Premier Doug Ford’s government announced major changes to Ontario’s student financial-assistance system.

The government cited concerns about the sustainability of OSAP spending as it moved to reduce grants for university and publicly funded college students while removing career-college students from provincial grant eligibility.

The province subsequently went further by preventing students at five specific career-college institutions from accessing OSAP loans for the 2026-27 academic year.

Three Academy of Learning locations are among those affected.

The decision followed government inspections and concerns related particularly to asynchronous programs, including what officials described as compromised participation, inadequate attendance tracking and deficiencies in monitoring academic progress.

Why asynchronous education is at the centre of the dispute

Asynchronous learning allows students to complete coursework without necessarily attending classes at a fixed time.

The model became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Ontario temporarily expanded OSAP eligibility to students enrolled in online and asynchronous programs.

The province subsequently made that eligibility permanent.

The flexibility can be particularly useful for mature students, people working full time, parents and newcomers who may have other responsibilities.

But the same flexibility creates challenges for institutions and regulators attempting to verify student participation and ensure that the person receiving financial assistance is the person completing the academic work.

That is at the centre of the current dispute.

The government says its inspections identified circumstances that raised questions about participation and student identity.

The colleges argue that they have systems in place to monitor students and that they have introduced additional safeguards in response to the ministry’s concerns.

The industry says most colleges are not involved

Career Colleges Ontario has stressed that concerns about unusual OSAP activity involve a relatively small portion of the sector.

The organization has said that indications of irregular conduct are rare among its members and that protecting the integrity of both the career-college sector and the OSAP system is a priority.

It has also said it has been working with ministry officials to identify appropriate remedies where unusually large increases in OSAP applications cannot be satisfactorily explained.

The distinction is important because Ontario has approximately 170 career colleges, meaning the institutions at the centre of the dispute represent only a fraction of the overall sector.

What it means for students

The dispute could have significant consequences for students who depend on financial assistance to complete their education.

Students choosing private career colleges often do so because of shorter programs, flexible schedules or specialized training designed to lead directly into employment.

Ontario’s own guidance says career colleges offer programs in fields including business, health services, information technology, trades, human resources and applied arts, and that many offer flexible schedules and multiple enrolment periods during the year.

For students already enrolled at affected institutions, however, the loss of OSAP eligibility could create financial difficulties.

Some may have to find alternative sources of funding, while others could reconsider whether they can continue their programs.

The situation could be particularly significant for newcomers and working adults who rely on flexible career-college programs to obtain Canadian credentials.

A broader issue for Ontario’s post-secondary system

The controversy has developed into a broader debate over how Ontario should regulate private post-secondary education and protect public student-assistance funds.

The government faces the challenge of ensuring that legitimate students and institutions are not unfairly affected while also preventing public money from being distributed where academic participation cannot be adequately verified.

The career-college sector, meanwhile, has an interest in maintaining public confidence in its programs and ensuring that actions against individual institutions do not create a broader perception that private career colleges are generally operating improperly.

The current court proceedings may therefore provide greater clarity about the specific evidence behind the government’s decisions.

What happens next

The three Academy of Learning locations are challenging the province’s decision in court, while the government maintains that its actions followed inspections and concerns about the integrity of OSAP-funded programs.

The case will have to determine whether the province acted within its authority and whether its decision-making process was reasonable.

For now, neither the court nor the government has established that all students or institutions involved engaged in wrongdoing.

What is clear is that Ontario’s scrutiny of private career colleges has intensified.

The province has already restricted financial assistance at several institutions, while court documents have revealed concerns about student participation, admissions practices and academic records.

As the legal challenge continues, students, career colleges and the wider Ontario post-secondary sector will be watching closely to see how the dispute is resolved and what additional measures the province may introduce to protect the integrity of its student financial-assistance system.