The Canadian Federation of Students has identified a number of concerns about the implementation of ancillary fees at colleges and universities in Ontario. In general, these concerns related to both the types of fees collected, and the process through which they were determined.
A more detailed investigation of the problem revealed that the approval process for ancillary fees creation and increase varies from institution to institution, with little consistency. In many instances, the institutional approval process is inadequate and in other cases, the institution may be failing to meet basic Ministerial standards.
Regardless of the approval process, certain fees currently being collected at Ontario's colleges and universities are questionable. The Federation identified several fees charged at all or nearly all Ontario colleges which clearly contravene the Ministry's 'Binding Policy.'
In particular, it has become the universal practice for colleges to charge ancillary fees for information technology services, despite the fact that computing services are expressly excluded from the types of services for which an ancillary fee can be levied.
The Ministry's policy states that revenue from general purpose operating grants, capital grants, and tuition fees should be the only sources of revenue used to generate resources for these purposes.
The average annual ancillary fee for information technology is over $130—almost 20% of the total average ancillary fee paid by Ontario's full-time college students. Other dubious ancillary fees include fees for capital or building funds; libraries; student support; administration, or registration; bursaries or fundraising; and student identification cards.
It appears that the Government of Ontario is fully aware of this infraction and is, either actively or passively, supporting institutional practices that circumvent and undermine its own policies.
In a recent consultation with the Ontario government on the issue of ancillary fees, representatives of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities circulated a document in which the government reviewed the extent to which information technology fees had become pervasive among Ontario colleges, and made the following acknowledgment: "Information technology is similar to libraries and other academic services and is considered tuition related and not an eligible item for which ancillary fees may be charged under the current policy."5
As a result of the government's unwillingness to enforce its own policy and to require colleges to follow their own protocols on fee collection, students in Ontario have continued to pay hundreds of dollars in illegitimate fees every year. Collectively, this amounts to hundreds of millions of student dollars which have potentially been collected illegally.
Source:
5. Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Overview of Ancillary Fees, December, 2006: p. 4.