TORONTO, March 1 /OUSA/ - Concerned that Ontario's colleges and universities remain less accessible to a number of underrepresented groups, a coalition of student organizations representing over 2.5 million Ontario students have joined together for the first time to recommend the creation of a new access strategy. Students call on the province to replace the current patchwork of access initiatives with a holistic access strategy that would involve multiple government ministries and tackle all access barriers simultaneously.

The call is contained in a report released today entitled Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Equal Access to Higher Education. Although Ontario has one of the highest post-secondary attainment rates, the report examines why thousands of low-income students, Aboriginal students, rural and northern students, students with dependants, and students whose parents did not attend higher education continue to be underrepresented in higher education, despite sincere efforts by government and post-secondary institutions to promote access.

"This government has demonstrated a commitment to improving access, and while some individual programs are making a difference, much more remains to be done," said Meaghan Coker, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). "With one voice, students are saying that we can and must do better."

To reverse this trend, the report lays out the framework for a holistic access strategy through forty-two recommendations covering six focus areas:

�      Expanding funding for community-based and institutional early outreach programs, such as Pathways to Education;

�      Helping students move within and between educational pathways through continued improvement to the credit transfer system and the implementation of bridging programs;

�      Better using the primary and secondary school system to guide and assist students in transitioning to higher education, for instance through an expansion of the successful dual credit program;

�      Increasing distance and online learning opportunities, specifically through the forthcoming Ontario Online Institute;

�      Improving the Ontario Student Assistance Program to provide more targeted, non-repayable grants, extend eligibility, and fix the broken need assessment formula; and

�      Strengthening college and university support programs for students from underrepresented groups.

Because seven of every ten new jobs will require a higher education, Premier McGuinty recently set a provincial target of 70 per cent post-secondary attainment. Given the numerous economic and social benefits of a well-educated populous, students fully support the Premier's target and stress that meeting this goal will require a concerted effort to close participation gaps.

Copies of the report are available at www.ousa.ca. The report is co-authored by OUSA and its partners at the College Student Alliance and the Ontario Student Trustees' Association.