Ontario career college forced into layoffs as student funding stalls

As the Ford government cracks down on private career colleges over alleged student loan fraud, a school that says it plays by the rules warns that continuing to withhold student funding hurts Ontario’s workforce and could put good actors out of business.

“Our revenues and income completely stopped all of a sudden, which resulted in layoffs. After 35 years, we did layoffs for the first time Monday,” said Muraly Srinarayanathas, the chairman of Computek College, a private career college with locations in Toronto, Ajax and Marhkam.

“We’ve requested the ministry to be first in terms of the inspections so that we can get back to what we do best, which is serving our students,” he said.

Computek mainly offers training for those entering healthcare, business and technology.

It’s one of hundreds of private career colleges where thousands of students have had their promised student loans cut as the province said it’s investigating “serious concerns” about alleged Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) fraud.

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But the blanket ban has been “confusing,” said Srinarayanathas, as Computek is audited each year and is visited by inspectors annually, indicating a clean record.

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It’s now not only upended the lives of students, but the OSAP ban has also put the college on shaky financial ground, he said.

In July, the Ford government first disqualified students at five private career colleges from OSAP loans due to concerns about enrollment practices and unusually high concentration of student loan applications.

By October, the government extended the OSAP ban to all 242 private career colleges as the province investigated “serious concerns” raised by the federal government, advocacy groups and internal audits and inspections.

On Thursday, College and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced that legislation will be introduced Monday with the intent to increase oversight and accountability. He said the significant concerns around OSAP usage in the sector are far more widespread than first suspected.

“What we have found here are not minor administrative concerns, but rather co-ordinated, sophisticated efforts to take advantage of students and taxpayers for personal gain,” he said Thursday at a press conference.

Srinarayanathas said the school is “very much aligned” with the Ford government’s desire to maintain integrity in the sector and investigate any alleged fraud. But those ambitions need to be balanced with keeping students in class and able to pay for housing, he said.

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Students have reported that the sudden loss in funding has meant not only are they unable to attend school to build their careers, they are now struggling to pay for rent, food and childcare costs.

“Some of our students have been on welfare, have taken OSAP, trusting that OSAP would provide their tuition support and also their living expenses,” said Srinarayanathas. In the months that have passed, the financial situation for students is now “extremely dire,” he added.

The school’s students are mainly between the ages of 35 to 45, are newly Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and are looking for opportunities to build their lives and contribute to Ontario, he explained.

“There’s this great excitement about building up Canada, elbows up, that requires supporting people who want to take advantage of those opportunities,” he said.

Dental assistants, pharmaceutical technicians, and personal support workers, he said, are just some of the careers that are mostly supported by private career colleges.

“Being able to train and get into those higher paying opportunities is essential for everyone across Ontario and across Canada. So it is very challenging to be in this situation,” he said.