Toronto’s Université de l’Ontario français is continuing to struggle with low enrollment numbers – with just one Ontario student set to join this year.
The enrollment figures are grim for the French university, whose recent opening was made possible due to political pressure from Franco-Ontarians and progressive activists and $126 million of taxpayer money from the provincial and federal governments.
New data from the Ontario University’s Application Centre shows that just one Ontario student has accepted an offer to join the university’s four founding programs or its bachelor of business administration for the 2024-2025 academic year.
This marks a 75% decrease from the previous year when four Ontario students accepted offers to study in the flagship programs.
The university did see 113 applicants who are not from Ontario secondary schools accept offers, but even this number represents a decrease of 43% from the year prior, when 198 out-of-province students accepted offers.
The university’s bachelor of education degree, which was launched in Nov. 2022, was excluded from OUAC’s data. That program has shown to be more popular.
Université de l’Ontario français gave out around one hundred offers to the bachelor of education program, and the 80 spots the program has have all been filled up by Canadian citizens.
The struggles of the Université de l’Ontario français, which opened in 2021, are not new.
The university saw just 19 Ontario students apply for the inaugural 2021-2022 academic year and just 14 applications for the following 2022-2023 year.
The university did see an increase in applications for the 2023-2024 year amidst the launch of the new bachelor of education program. However, figures appear to again be on the decrease.
Overall, the university received 861 applications as of June 5, a 31% decrease from last year when it received 1245 applications. The total number of students who ended up enrolling at the university also decreased by 44%.
The Université de l’Ontario français was announced back in 2017 by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government. It was promoted as Ontario’s first fully francophone university.
While Ontario did not have a fully francophone university at the time, it had and continues to have several bilingual universities, including the University of Ottawa, Laurentian University and the University of Sudbury.
The project was then initially cancelled by the Ford government in 2018, as part of budget cuts. The move, along with other cuts to francophone services, led to mass outrage and protest among the Franco-Ontarian community as well as progressive activists.
The Ford government later reversed its decision and announced it would build the university after all. The Ford and Trudeau governments teamed up to fund the university to the tune of $126 million over eight years.
Neither the Université de l’Ontario français nor the office of Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop responded to a request for comment.