The Ontario government is working towards its plan of creating a differentiation framework which might impact the future of all public post-secondary colleges and universities in the province.

According to Ontario’s Proposed Differentiation Policy Framework Draft Discussion Paper, the precarious state of global economy has made Ontario’s fiscal environment challenging. It cited that “Over time the sustainability of post-secondary education might be at risk.”

To tackle this problem and at the same time maintain high level of educational quality, the draft discussion paper mentioned the need of differentiating among educational institutions on the basis of their individual strengths.

The government had urged all post-secondary institutions to provide a feedback on the framework by the end of October.

“George Brown College absolutely agrees with the principle of the government’s view to maintain quality level education. However what they have provided us is very general at this point,” said Brian Stock, director of communications at GBC.

The ministry laid out eight components to differentiate upon, Teaching and learning; Student population; Jobs, Innovation and economic development; Strategic enrollment; Research; Program offerings; Institutional collaboration and Sustainability.

“Colleges indicated that differentiation should affirm the role of colleges as institutions offering career-related education, meeting the needs of employers, and contributing to social and economic development.” said Gyula Kovacs, spokesperson for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

In the feedback provided, GBC suggested three main components to focus on, which are jobs and innovation, research and program offerings.

“Eight is a lot of components to differentiate on,” said Stock.

With each component, the government also proposed evaluation metrics such as identifying niche programs, multi-year enrollment plans, economic and community impact, teaching quality, retention and success.

Laura Jo Gunter, senior vice-president of academic at GBC said, “The ministry asked colleges to provide their feedback on very preliminary documents. Colleges in Ontario and GBC provided a similar feedback which basically said that the metrics that we use to measure our outcomes should be consistent and relate to colleges.”

With the proposed framework raising questions about government funding, its impact on students particularly living in northern or rural areas and program offerings, Gunter mentioned that GBC has no plans to make any changes in relation to differentiation at this point.

“A differentiated postsecondary education system will help facilitate the alignment between regional development needs and defined institutional mandates. This will advance growth in partnerships and programs that serve the communities to which institutions are connected and broader provincial needs,” said Kovacs.

“The government is really trying to look at two things, and we all are. One is to maintain high quality education in Ontario in the post-secondary sector, and the other is they want to make sure there is financial sustainability. What they are doing is that they are looking to ensure that when it comes to program offerings the institutions have a strategy,” said Gunter.

GBC already has a strategy in place for the future called strategy 2020. It includes building a sustainable financial and business model, research, innovation, and technology advancements.

“One of the pillars of strategy 2020 is to maintain the fiscal responsibility. So, it’s already a part of what we are doing,” said Stock. “GBC at this point of time feels no need to change program mix or student population. We feel like 2020 is focused in the right areas and continue working like the way we are. As far as differentiation is concerned, it’s early on.”

GBC is in discussion with the ministry regarding its strategic mandate agreement.

The ministry is expected to release its final framework later this fall which will give an opportunity to all institutions to review their feedback and move forward with the discussion.