Thousands of OSAP applications came from a single IP address, ministry alleges

At two career colleges now under the Ontario government’s microscope, more than half of the thousands of student financial aid applications last year came from a single IP address, officials allege in documents filed in court.

The government has also received more than 200 tips about that network of schools, including allegations that certain recruiters were submitting students’ Ontario Student Assistance Program applications at those schools, which is not allowed, and completing their coursework, those same documents show.

The Academy of Learning did not provide comment on the new court filings in response to a request from The Canadian Press, but has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing. They say the schools have implemented a long list of corrective actions, including cutting ties with some recruiters and bolstering admissions practices. The ministry’s allegations have not been proven in court.

The newly filed allegations against the schools come as Premier Doug Ford’s government is under increasing fire for its handling of OSAP. Critics say alleged misuse of the system was allowed to fester under lax oversight, then when it was brought to light Ford left innocent students paying the price.

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Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn says his government acted on tips and conducted in-depth inspections that ultimately led to barring the schools from OSAP eligibility and launching a broader probe.

Quinn earlier this year drastically reduced the amount of OSAP grants that students at universities and publicly funded colleges could receive in the name of “sustainability” as the program was facing rising costs.

Those costs were later revealed by The Canadian Press to largely be due to activity at a small number of career colleges. Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the amount of provincial OSAP grants to career colleges nearly doubled, to about $1 billion in the latter year.

The Academy of Learning operates as franchises but the three schools barred from OSAP share a parent company, Opulence Education Group. Its campuses in Toronto on Bay Street and in North York, and one in Brampton East, accounted for one-fifth of that spending.

The three schools were among six that in May the province made ineligible for OSAP, citing an “inability to reliably determine bona fide studies,” a decision the schools are challenging in court. As part of that case, the province issued a final decision in August and added that to the court record this month.

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“The ministry is not satisfied that the institutions have adequate processes in place to ensure that its records and processes can be relied on for the proper administration and disbursement of OSAP funding to eligible students,” the decision says.

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Ministry officials who last year inspected the campuses at issue looked at a sampling of student accounts and found evidence of shared IP address activity across students referred by the same recruiter, the government alleges.

In completing its final decision to deny the schools OSAP eligibility this year, the ministry appears to have taken a closer look at IP address activity.

There were 6,001 OSAP applications from students at the Brampton East campus for the 2025-26 year and 3,136 of them — 52 per cent — came from a single IP address, the ministry alleges. There were five more IP addresses responsible for 100 or more applications, they allege.

At the North York campus, 3,460 out of 6,070 OSAP applications for that year — 57 per cent — came from a single IP address, the ministry alleges. Two other IP addresses were responsible for another 255 applications, they allege.

The Bay campus saw 6,966 OSAP applications that year, with 1,736 — 25 per cent — coming from a single IP address, the ministry alleges. Five other IP addresses submitted 100 or more applications, they allege.

The Academy of Learning argued in an earlier letter to the ministry that shared IP addresses may be due to multiple people living at the same address, but the ministry is calling that into question.

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“While patterns of shared IP addresses among students attending the same physical school campus space accessing their student accounts may be expected, patterns of shared IP address activity among the institution’s asynchronous learners referred to the institution by the same recruiter is significant and renders the institution’s proposed explanation unlikely in this case,” the ministry wrote in the court filing.

In its letter to the province to rebut any nefarious assumptions about students’ logins, the Academy of Learning also wrote, “the presence of the same IP address among different users does not, by itself, establish misconduct, misrepresentation, or unauthorized activity.”

Quinn has tasked KPMG with an audit of OSAP payments to career colleges and earlier this month referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police, while pausing such payments to all private post-secondary institutions. It is not known if the referral contains specific allegations relating to the Academy of Learning.

It comes after warnings from Career Colleges Ontario, the federal government, and hundreds of tips and complaints about possible misuse of the OSAP system.

The new ministry court filings reveal that since Jan. 1, 2024 it has received more than 220 tips, complaints, referrals and investigations relating to the three Academy of Learning campuses, with the volume and consistency of the concerns “significant,” the government alleges.

“The ministry received related third-party complaints and tips alleging that certain recruiters were acting on behalf of students, including in submitting OSAP applications, in uploading supporting documentation on students’ OSAP accounts, and in completing coursework on behalf of students, and that recruiters were using OSAP funding as a recruitment or marketing tool,” the ministry wrote.

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The schools have since cut off ties with some recruiters, they have said.

Academy of Learning did not directly respond to a request for comment by The Canadian Press on the allegation that recruiters were completing students’ coursework, but has noted in a corrective action plan last year that it added enhanced IP tracking to identify possible third-party access and added two-factor authentication “to safeguard against third-party completion of assignments.”

NDP critic Peggy Sattler said given all the information that is now public about what the government knew or should have known about the skyrocketing OSAP usage at some career colleges, it is shocking they did not act with more urgency.

“I think the more details that we learn through these court proceedings, the clearer it is that the minister was completely incompetent at doing his job,” she said. “It is stunning that these five-alarm fires were being ignored by the government.”

Liberal critic Tyler Watt also said the new revelations reflect poorly on Quinn.

“Minister Nolan Quinn keeps insisting he’s taken this scandal seriously, but every new revelation raises more questions about what his ministry knew, when they knew it, and why they failed to act,” he wrote in a statement.

Quinn’s office said when serious concerns are identified, they do not hesitate to cut an institution off from OSAP entirely, as was done with the Academy of Learning locations in this court case.

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“Any misuse of OSAP is unacceptable,” Bianca Giacoboni wrote in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for bad actors who threaten the integrity of our post-secondary system.”

Quinn has indicated he will introduce further legislation this fall to enhance accountability in the system.