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Ontario College Does First Layoffs in 35 Years Over OSAP Freeze
Computek College in Toronto says it's being swept up in a province-wide OSAP ban targeting private career college fraud, despite a clean audit record.
Computek College laid off staff for the first time in its 35-year history this week after Ontario's blanket ban on OSAP funding for private career colleges cut off the school's revenue entirely. The Toronto-area college, which also has campuses in Ajax and Markham, says it has a clean compliance record but is being treated the same as institutions under active fraud investigation.
"Our revenues and income completely stopped all of a sudden, which resulted in layoffs. After 35 years, we did layoffs for the first time Monday," said Muraly Srinarayanathas, the college's chairman.
How the Ban Came About
The Ford government first disqualified students at five private career colleges from Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) loans in July 2026, citing suspicious enrollment practices and an unusually high concentration of loan applications. By October, the province extended that ban to all 242 private career colleges while it investigated what it called "serious concerns" flagged by the federal government, advocacy groups, and its own internal audits.
On Thursday, November 13, College and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced that new legislation will be introduced Monday with a focus on tightening oversight and accountability across the sector. Quinn said the scale of the problem is bigger than initially thought.
"What we have found here are not minor administrative concerns, but rather co-ordinated, sophisticated efforts to take advantage of students and taxpayers for personal gain," Quinn said at a press conference.
The Impact on Students
Computek focuses on training for healthcare, business, and technology, sectors where Ontario consistently needs workers. Its students skew toward people who rely heavily on OSAP, not just for tuition but for rent, food, and childcare.
Srinarayanathas said many students came from welfare or low-income situations, enrolling on the expectation that OSAP would cover both their tuition and living costs. With the funding gone, some students can no longer attend class or pay basic expenses. He described the financial situation for students as "extremely dire."
The sudden disruption has also put Computek itself on unstable financial ground. The college says it is audited annually and receives regular inspections, with nothing flagged against it.
A Clean Record, Caught in a Wide Net
Srinarayanathas said the blanket ban has been "confusing" for schools like Computek that have demonstrated compliance year after year. He said the college supports the government's goal of cleaning up fraud in the sector but wants to be prioritized for inspection so it can get students back in class quickly.
"We've requested the ministry to be first in terms of the inspections so that we can get back to what we do best, which is serving our students," he said.
What Comes Next
Minister Quinn's upcoming legislation is expected to introduce new accountability measures for the private career college sector. The province has not provided a timeline for when compliant schools might have OSAP access restored.
For Computek and its students, the wait is already costing real jobs and derailing real lives. Ontario's workforce-training pipeline depends on private colleges filling gaps that publicly funded colleges don't cover, particularly in healthcare and technology. Every week the funding freeze continues, students in Toronto, Ajax, and Markham fall further behind, through no fault of their own.