26 Jul Mind the Gap (from Regis Friends Quarterly 4.4)

It’s not cheap to go to university. A full-time Master of Divinity student spends $6,020 on tuition to take five courses per semester over the fall and winter semesters, plus over $1,000 in mandatory fees collected by the University of Toronto. But that $6,020 tuition is only 10.7% of the actual cost of a year of course work.

Traditionally, this is where the provincial government would step in. In 1978-79 the Province of Ontario covered approximately 79% of the general operating expenses of its public universities. But today, each M.Div. student at Regis College brings in an effective grant of $2,950 from the Ontario Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security. That’s just 5.2% of the cost of that single year of full-time studies.

Today, it costs $56,512 per student to keep the lights on at the College and pay the salaries of professors and support staff. After adding up the total cost of educating a student and then subtracting tuition and provincial grant income, the unfunded portion of a year of M.Div. studies for domestic students at Regis College comes to $47,542. Regis College President Fr. Gordon Rixon, SJ, has labelled this amount “The Gap,” which is equal to 84.1% of the cost. International students at Ontario universities help the financial picture since they pay three to four times as much in tuition as Canadians.

For Jesuit scholastics, whether domestic or international, the Jesuit provinces and their donors cover The Gap. But for lay students – the people who become chaplains in schools, hospitals, and prisons; who maintain the Catholic identity and purpose of Catholic institutions; and who work with the disabled, homeless, and vulnerable in both Catholic and non-Catholic settings – The Gap yawns like a canyon for Regis to bridge.

Regis Interim President Sr. Susan K. Wood, SCL, whose academic career has taken her across the border, sees that the Canadian landscape increasingly mirrors that of American universities, where schools must maintain an in-house industry constantly chasing donor dollars.

As an American now living and working in Canada, Wood sees the cultural difference in attitudes and total philanthropic dollars available in Canada. There are differences in income tax law, of course, and a smaller donor class of people with disposable income to put into good causes. But there’s also a fundamentally different Canadian understanding of the collective, public responsibility for maintaining and building up higher education as a basic good of society.

Universities have traditionally been considered a public work receiving public funding from the government. “Minding the Gap” requires private contributions for colleges to make ends meet. It would require a transformation of Canada’s giving culture to even approach American levels of private support for higher education.

The Gap is not a problem unique to the Jesuit School of Theology at the University of Toronto. “Philanthropy supporting higher education is important for all institutions,” Wood said. “And that’s why everybody has an advancement office and is fundraising.” It is the pain of underfunding shared by Ontario universities over the last decade. Ontario provides the lowest funding per full-time domestic student of all the other provinces despite having the third highest average tuition and compulsory fees in the country.

In February the Ontario government announced $6.4 billion in new funding for the post-secondary sector over the next four years. That’s more than $1 billion a year in new funding, but in real terms, by 2027-28 it will still leave Ontario universities more than well behind where they were in 2015-16 in per student funding.

In 2019 the provincial government mandated a 10% tuition cut, then froze tuition at that level year after year ever since. By 2025, Ontario universities were taking in 26.6% less in tuition than they were in 2018. The February 2026 announcement will also allow Ontario institutions to raise their tuition by up to 2% per year, which does not begin to make up the difference for the freeze.

The charitable giving Regis already receives is extremely important to the college, said Wood. “One of the wonderful things that happened today is, we got a bequest from an estate. We’re always very grateful to get them,” she said in an interview. “[But] there is still an unfunded gap that the tuition does not cover, which is why the institution also needs unrestricted gifts.”

As with most bequests, the money is designated for a specific purpose, in this case a scholarship for a lay student studying in a particular area. This allows a student, who might not otherwise be able to afford to pursue such studies, to realize their dreams. But even such generous donations don’t close the Gap. They ease the burden on students by subsidizing money they would have paid in tuition fees, but that extra cost of educating a student remains the responsibility of the College.

The theory that savings can somehow close that $47,542 or 84.1% Gap does not persuade Wood. “Regis runs a very tight ship, in terms of keeping its overhead low” she said.

The math tells her that even a smaller Gap is going to require Regis to develop a bigger philanthropic footprint. New demands on educational institutions, like delivering online and hybrid education to those who cannot afford to live in the city, require investments. But to deliver that, you’ve got to have the technology. And technology is expensive, contributing to the Gap.

From scrunched-up twenties to gifts of securities and bequests, one thing’s for sure: Regis relies on help from its friends.

Sources

Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security: 2025 Spending Plan Review, Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, 2025, Fig. 5.3 and 5.5.

“Ontario Investing $6.4 Billion to Support Postsecondary Sector’s Long-Term Success and Sustainability,” Ontario Newsroom, 2026, https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1007034/ontario-investing-64-billion-to-support-postsecondary-sectors-long-term-success-and-sustainability

Don Drummond. 2026. “Ontario Stops Deepening its Universities’ Financial Pit,” Intelligence Memos. Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute. https://cdhowe.org/publication/ontario-stops-deepening-its-universities-financial-pit/

“Tuition set to rise, OSAP grants lower with new Ontario post-secondary funding changes: minister.” CBC News. Feb 12, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-college-university-funding-osap-9.7086776