March 30, 2026

The Government of Ontario has officially released the 2026 Ontario Budget: A Plan to Protect Ontario, which is focused on jobs and investment, affordability, and lowering costs for workers and businesses. The budget formally introduces ON’s new long-term funding model for postsecondary education—an additional $6.4B over four years, a 30% increase to annual operating funding, and changes to OSAP and the tuition framework—as well as a $6M investment into the Queen Elizabeth Scholars program. ON also notes that it will invest $5.5B over the next ten years into postsecondary infrastructure, which includes capital grants for critical repairs, improving energy efficiency, and modernizing facilities. Expenses for PSE are projected to decrease from 2024-25 to 2028-29, a change that ON says reflects lower college sector spending.

The Government of British Columbia is providing $32M in funding to renovate engineering technology facilities at Camosun College’s Interurban campus. Camosun College VP Academic Richard Stride explained that the upgrades to the Jack White Building and Technologies Building will “create modern, flexible spaces where students can design, build, test and collaborate.” This will help to ensure that learners in the college’s growing Civil and Mechanical Engineering Technology programs prepare for the workforce. Construction on the Jack White building is expected to begin in Fall 2026, followed by the Technologies building in early 2028.

Statistics Canada has released an analysis of educational attainment in Canada. StatCan found that the percentage of Canadian adults with a postsecondary credential has increased from 55% in 2015 to 64% in 2025, a change that was largely driven by growth in degree attainment. There was a gender gap: 71% of 25-to-64-year-old women held a college or university credential in 2025, compared to 57% of men. University of Waterloo Professor Ana Ferrer spoke to Global News about some of the employment-related factors behind the gender gap, and explained that “this is likely to change because it’s less and less the case that there are occupations for women and occupations for men.”

Queen’s University and Simon Fraser University have signed a memorandum of understanding focused on the creation of a secure, made-in-Canada supercomputing system. This system would keep Canadian data and intellectual property in Canada, while providing high-performance computing services to academia, government, and industry. The partnership will also involve Bell Canada, which will help to develop the supercomputing facility in Ontario and expand capacity in British Columbia. The two partners have also indicated their intent to apply to the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program when it launches in 2026: Business In Vancouver reports that they will be seeking $900M in support.

The University of Regina and Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation have announced a research partnership focused on the health of children, families, and mothers. As part of this partnership, URegina’s Child Trauma Research Centre has received a $1.5M grant from the foundation that will be used to support its ongoing research activities. “This will result in leading research for this province,” said URegina CTRC Director Nathalie Reid. “I am so excited for the next five years and what we’ll be able to do.”

Memorial University is embarking on a comprehensive review of its separately incorporated entities (SIEs). Memorial operates five SIEs: Campus Childcare Inc, the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation, the Centre for Cold Ocean Resources Engineering, Genesis Group Inc, and the Memorial University Recreation Complex. The review will consider each SIE’s alignment with Memorial’s core mission and explore their legal status, governance, financial position, resources, risks, and future viability. “By taking the time to complete these reviews, we will have the data and analysis needed to make decisions about future direction, which may be different for each entity,” said Memorial VP (Finance and Administration) Alison Horton.

Vanier College has cancelled its annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony, citing safety concerns and the “volatile geopolitical climate.” The Montreal Gazette says that the college continued to operate the remainder of its annual symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide “for a limited audience under tight security.” Holocaust survivor Eva Kuper, who was scheduled to speak at the ceremony, expressed disappointment at the decision. “I think that it is [Vanier’s] obligation as an educational institution to put students together, even if they are on opposite sides … to help them talk to each other, hear each other, recognize each other as human beings,” said Kuper.

Assiniboine College and Canadian Forces Base Shilo’s Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) have signed a memorandum of understanding designed to expand learning opportunities for Canadian Armed Forces members and their families. Assiniboine will receive a dedicated space at Shilo MFRC’s facility for training, in addition to receiving access to other areas on CFB Shilo for specialized programming. Assiniboine Dean of Community Development Michael Cameron and MFRC Executive Director Rob Lavin expressed excitement at the possibilities arising from the agreement, with Cameron stating that the agreement fulfils a need for education close to where people live and work. Cameron said that the work is currently underway to determine meaningful programming offerings for the CFB Shilo community.

Tara J Konya (University of New England) and Sonja Strahl (University of Maryland Global Campus) have written an article on why badges are not the solution to the skills-credentialling challenge. The authors share how they previously embedded skills-based digital credentials into their online programs, with the goal of helping graduates to articulate what they had learned to employers. Through that process, they learned that the term “skills” means something different to different stakeholders, that course outcomes are not equivalent to skills, and that the data used to inform badges is rarely gathered in a straightforward manner. Based on those learnings, Konya and Strahl outline several recommendations for other continuing education teams looking to better recognize skills.

The University of New Brunswick is now home to an infant metabolic chamber, which it says is the first such machine in Canada and one of only three in the world. The custom-engineered machine will enable UNB to safely study whole‑body metabolic data from infants and toddlers, opening the door to foundational questions about how nutrition, genetics, and environments influence metabolic rate. “We currently don’t have a full understanding of early infants’ metabolism and factors that can affect their metabolism. This chamber allows us to measure a baby’s resting metabolic rate as early as one day old,” said UNB Professor Dr Maryam Kebbe.