10% of Ontario college students dropped semester, received tuition refund, early figures show

TORONTO – Nearly 25,700 full time Ontario college students received tuition refunds after a five-week-strike derailed their semester.

Ontario’s Ministry of Advanced Education confirmed today that 10.3 per cent of Ontario’s roughly 250,000 full-time college students asked for, and received, their money back after the strike.

Minister Deb Matthews said that figures are still preliminary and could change in the coming weeks as further numbers are reported by Ontario’s 24 colleges.

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Last month, Matthews ordered colleges to refund the tuition money for any student who felt unable to complete the condensed semester.

The decision is likely to cost the schools millions of dollars which would have otherwise been saved because of the labour dispute.
The government ended the strike in November with back-to-work legislation passed in a rare weekend sitting at Queen’s Park.