The establishment of Ontario’s colleges of applied arts and technology 60 years ago marked a pivotal moment in the province’s educational history. The founding vision was based on principles of accessibility and community, as colleges were designed to strengthen Ontario’s growing social and economic fabric. Today, this promise is unravelling. Students now face limited program choices with the cancellation or suspension of 600 programs over the past year, rising fees and mounting debt, while faculty and staff contend with precarious contracts and widespread layoffs.As students settle into fall semesters, it’s essential to reflect on the history of Ontario’s colleges in order to envision a future that safeguards the public mission on which these institutions were founded.Founding visionOntario redefined post-secondary education in 1965 by creating a new college system under the leadership of William G. Davis, then the province’s education minister, later its premier. This marked a turning point in Ontario’s educational history and the birth of the college system.In response to the province’s rapid demographic and economic shifts, Davis proposed a model of affordable, accessible vocational education aimed at preparing students for the workforce. The foundational principles emphasized that college programs should be “occupation-oriented” and “designed to meet the needs of the local community”; Additionally, the plans highlighted there should be a “close relationship between any college program and the long-term economic development plans for a particular region” to respond to immediate labour market demands and broader societal needs, including arts, health, science and technical fields. This approach ensured that the founding vision was connected to regional development, allowing colleges to address Ontario’s diverse social, economic and cultural needs across multiple sectors.In a 1967 Department of Education publication, Davis cited an earlier 1964 report that named the unique role that colleges would play:“In the present crisis .. we must turn our attention to the post-secondary level, where we must create a new kind of institution that will provide, in the interests of students for whom a university course is unsuitable, a type of training which universities are not designed to offer.”This mandate gave colleges their distinctive purpose of filling gaps that universities were never meant to address.Economic and social developmentThere are now 24 colleges with campuses in 200 communities throughout Ontario. This college system plays a vital role in the province’s education and economy.Davis’s legacy is evident in the generations of students who have attended these institutions. Since 2018, an average of 140,000 people have graduated annually from Ontario’s colleges. It is reported that an average of 83 per cent of Ontario college graduates are employed within six months of graduation. These outcomes highlight the pivotal role that colleges play in contributing to Ontario’s economic and social development.Shifts in fundingThe financial foundation of Ontario colleges has shifted dramatically over the past six decades. When colleges were first established most operating expenses were financed by the province, with tuition contributing to a lesser extent.By the late 1980s, however, per-student funding had already fallen by roughly one-third. The trend accelerated in 1995 when $120 million was cut. Rather than raising tuition directly, colleges responded by introducing ancillary fees, expanding international student enrolment, postponing capital projects and turning to private funding. Read more: International students’ stories are vital in shaping Canada’s future From the 1990s onward, tuition increasingly replaced public investment as the financial backbone of the college system. Data from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario illustrates that between 1992 and 2008, total college revenue rose from $972 million to $1.6 billion, but this growth was driven primarily by student fees. Tuition revenue more than tripled during this period, while government funding shrank as a proportion of overall revenue.This reliance on student-paid fees deepened in the following decade. Between 2010-11 and 2022-23, provincial grants per student operating revenue (adjusted for inflation) declined by 29 per cent, while tuition revenue once again tripled. By 2022-23, Ontario colleges received approximately $11,081 per full-time-equivalent student, compared to the national average of $19,292. This figure is just 56 per cent of the Canadian average across provinces.A 2023 provincial report, Ensuring Financial Sustainability for Ontario’s Post-Secondary Sector, confirms the crisis surrounding underfunding. What does this mean for students?These funding changes have reshaped the classroom experience. For students, this means higher tuition and shifted program priorities that limit access and opportunity.For the public, it’s the loss of an original promise of accessible vocational education. Rising tuition fees have created barriers to access, especially for low-income, first-generation Canadian students.At the same time, the Ontario government has framed college funding heavily around immediate provincial and national economic pressures, for example in trades and construction, as well as STEM and health care. Read more: YouTube shapes young people's political education, but the site simplifies complex issues While public funding of colleges has been eroded, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union reports that Ontario has also spent significant funds cultivating “non-college training providers and projects” through a Skills Development Fund. It also notes that while public colleges are required to disclose a great deal about their funding and outcomes:“… very little is known about the funding levels, training quality or employment outcomes of SDF-funded projects. Instead, the province relies on campaign-style funding announcements, often showcasing private companies receiving multi-million dollar training grants.”Move away from founding visionDavis’s founding vision was rooted in regional development. Programs were designed to serve the long-term needs of communities, including the arts, local culture and community services. The goal was to strengthen entire regions and broaden opportunities through a balanced system that reflected both economic and social priorities.This shift reflects the broader marketization of higher education. Education is valued less for cultivating critical thinking, civic participation and community life and more for producing workers to meet short-term market needs.For students, this means diminishing autonomy as their choices are increasingly shaped by labour market pressures rather than broader civic needs and personal vocational interests. These funding trends raise concerns about the fate of a broader range of programs that sustain the social fabric of communities.Ongoing college support staff strikeFinally, these policy shifts ignore the immediate impact on students, faculty and staff. The ongoing support staff strike at Ontario colleges is one expression of these pressures, and its complexity deserves discussion beyond the scope of this piece.The question remains: where is our government in all this, and what will be done to save our colleges?Today, Davis’s legacy is being dismantled by chronic underfunding. The future of our colleges depends on renewal. We must reclaim these values and call on our federal and provincial leaders to support a truly public system of higher education that serves the communities it was created to serve.Emilda Thavaratnam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.