Tuition refunds offered to students as Ontario college strike ends
TORONTO — Half a million Ontario college students have the option of walking away from a now-condensed fall semester with a full tuition refund in the aftermath of a five-week-long faculty strike.
Students will have two weeks from the resumption of classes on Tuesday to decide whether or not they want to continue with the semester, Advanced Education Minister Deb Matthews said Monday. The province’s 24 colleges will be expected to foot the bill for the refund, she said.
“I didn’t think it was right that colleges would actually financially benefit from the strike,” Matthews said. “I think it’s appropriate to actually return that money to students.”
The move comes as 12,000 college faculty were back on the job Monday after the strike was ended over the weekend with back-to-work legislation.