Academic staff associations across Canada are concerned about the corporatization of universities, criticizing consultant-led reviews for undermining collegial governance, transparency and academic freedom in the pursuit of cost-cutting measures.
“Without decisive action from the federal government and the provinces to invest significantly in post-secondary education, the capacity of universities and colleges to deliver affordable, accessible and high-quality education to every Canadian is weakened,” said CAUT executive director David
Robinson. “Corporatization is not the answer.”
At the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the faculty association is concerned that the administration is implementing measures such as program cuts based on the findings from a review by the accounting firm KPMG “without following the proper collegial policies and procedures.”
Last year, the Ontario government directed several universities to retain third-party consulting firms to review their operations and find cost savings.
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations condemned the government’s $15 million funding of “private for-profit companies with no expertise or ties to public post-secondary education tasked with […] reviewing data on university finances that is already available
and reported by universities.”
Meanwhile, in its 2025-2026 pre-budget submission, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union criticized the funnelling of public funds into corporate hands while underfunding essential services such as education.
In British Columbia, the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC has released a report on university governance, highlighting faculty concerns about threats to collegial governance and the lack of transparency in consultant-led reviews.
In Quebec, the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université launched a public campaign to reclaim the public mission of universities amid efforts to “turn knowledge into a commodity, campuses into brands, and professors into service providers.”
