Ontario inspectors allege third parties completed coursework at career colleges

TORONTO — Ontario government officials allege they found evidence that third parties were completing coursework for students at three career colleges, with some finishing entire courses in a single day.

Inspection reports for three Academy of Learning locations in Toronto, Brampton and North York are part of a court record as the schools challenge a provincial decision to cut off their access to the Ontario Student Assistance Program.

"Inspection findings indicate that AOL Bay is unable to demonstrate that OSAP-funded students are actively participating in the programs they are enrolled in," the government's OSAP compliance unit wrote in a September 2025 report for a downtown Toronto location.

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"This raises serious concerns about the reliability of the institution's admissions practices, student identity verification, and the accuracy of academic progression and attendance records."

The schools deny most of the allegations and say they have taken the government's concerns seriously, including implementing numerous corrective actions.

Data obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom-of-information request found about 14,800 students at those three franchise locations received more than $219 million in OSAP grants in the 2024-25 academic year.

Students at all publicly funded colleges across Ontario qualified for about $385 million in OSAP grants that year.

Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn informed five career colleges, including the three Academy of Learning locations, on May 1 that they would not be OSAP eligible as of Aug. 1.

The three schools, which share a parent company, have applied for judicial review of that decision, alleging Quinn did not have the power to predetermine their eligibility and that his decision is unreasonable.

One student's account showed all quizzes and a final exam in a business writing course were completed on the same day, with the final exam taking six minutes, a Brampton inspection report said.

Another Brampton student's final exam for a business course was completed on the first day they accessed the course, inspectors wrote.

The credentials of a student at the North York campus were used to log into their school account from at least 211 IP addresses, inspectors wrote.

At the Bay Street location, 39 out of 42 student files examined had IP addresses that were used to access accounts belonging to other students, who were all referred by the same recruiter.

"This pattern suggests shared login credentials, unauthorized access, and/or co-ordinated activity among users," the report said.

Inspectors contacted six students, three of whom were available for a phone call.

Interviews revealed "inconsistencies," including students unable to name their institution, program or courses, students unable to communicate in English and students claiming to attend classes in person despite being enrolled in online programs.

Federal concerns and industry warning

The federal government also expressed concerns about the Bay and Brampton locations in September 2025, alleging unusually high growth in financial aid claimants, evidence that multiple applications were completed by the same person or group, and significant increases in loan default rates.

In a February 2026 letter to the province, Career Colleges Ontario said federal investigations led to reduced OSAP application volumes at those schools, but "application activity shifted to other institutions rather than declining."

"This pattern aligns with complaints received from CCO members indicating that certain schools were using third-party agents who offered to redirect students to other institutions if those institutions would misrepresent or falsely report attendance in order to facilitate continued OSAP disbursement," executive director Kate Bartz wrote.

None of the findings and allegations from either level of government have been proven in court.

The Academy of Learning denies most of the allegations and the ways in which some evidence is being interpreted.

Students may not have responded to the federal government's verification attempts because they believed them to be scam calls, and difficulty answering questions in interviews "can be reasonably attributed to situational and linguistic factors," the school wrote in a response.

The schools also wrote to the province to rebut assumptions about students' log-ins from multiple IP addresses, saying Bell, Rogers and Cogeco customers are assigned dynamic IP addresses.

"The presence of the same IP address among different users does not, by itself, establish misconduct, misrepresentation, or unauthorized activity," they wrote.

The three Academy of Learning locations were among 10 that Career Colleges Ontario flagged for the government in January 2025 as having "concerning" levels of growth in OSAP applications, jumping 500 and 600 per cent in two years.

The schools have submitted corrective action plans in response to their failed inspections.

The Academy of Learning said in a statement that many of the government concerns relate to a historical period that has since been the subject of extensive regulatory review.

With files from The Canadian Press, CityNews and The Globe and Mail