AAPS College Statement on Ontario Career College Oversight
October 7, 2026 (Toronto, Ontario) - AAPS College of Health, Science and Technology welcomes new measures announced this week by the Ontario government to strengthen accountability within the province’s career college sector.
AAPS has operated in Ontario since 2003, graduating more than 4,000 students and contributing to the province’s important life sciences and health care sectors. AAPS President Laleh Bighash made the following statement in response to Ontario’s announcement:
“We welcome the meaningful accountability measures the Ontario government has announced to protect students and taxpayers. Strong oversight will help distinguish established, proven institutions like AAPS from operators that fail to meet the standards the public rightfully expects.
At the same time, with the economic crisis we face as a country, we can’t afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Education and training institutions like AAPS, with demonstrable job outcomes and a commitment to student success, are critical to Ontario’s economic prosperity. Investments in state-of-the-art manufacturing capacity will only deliver results if Ontario has a skilled workforce to operate it.
According to Ministry career college KPI data, AAPS’s institution-wide graduation rate averaged approximately 85% from 2019 to 2023, roughly 12 percentage points above the career college average. Employer satisfaction with AAPS graduates averaged 95% across the four years for which results were reported during that period.
This is why AAPS is accelerating outreach with provincial and federal leaders to explore training opportunities for other growth sectors of Ontario’s economy during this difficult time. These include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and opportunities associated with accessing new trade markets in Europe.
AAPS is communicating with our students, faculty and employers to minimize the impact of these changes on classroom education and share information we receive from the Ministry.
We have also called on the provincial government to act quickly on its commitment to conclude agreements with financial institutions that will support students through the OSAP transition with low-interest loans.”
Laleh Bighash is available for interviews this week with media outlets reporting on these developments.
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AAPS College of Health, Science and Technology
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