TORONTO — More than half of the Ontario Student Assistance Program applications at two Academy of Learning career college campuses last year came from a single IP address, according to ministry allegations in newly filed court documents.At the North York campus, 3,460 of 6,070 applications for 2025-26 — 57% — originated from one IP address. At the Brampton East campus, 3,136 of 6,001 applications — 52% — came from a single address. A third campus on Bay St. in Toronto saw 1,736 of 6,966 applications — 25% — from one IP, the ministry alleges. Five or more additional addresses at each campus submitted 100 or more applications.The ministry directly challenged the schools’ explanation that shared addresses could result from roommates or dynamic internet service. “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,” officials wrote..The three campuses share a parent company, Opulence Education Group. They accounted for one-fifth of the roughly $1 billion in provincial OSAP grants that went to all career colleges in 2024-25. About 14,800 students at the three sites received more than $219 million in grants that year. The Bay St. campus alone grew from 996 OSAP recipients in 2021-22 to 7,435 in 2024-25, qualifying for more than $108 million in provincial grants.The schools were among six the province made ineligible for OSAP earlier this year. The ban has been extended for some until at least 2030. In its final decision the ministry stated it was “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.” Court filings show more than 220 tips and complaints related to the three campuses since January 1, 2024, including allegations that recruiters submitted applications, completed coursework, and used OSAP funding as a marketing tool. Earlier inspections described students finishing entire courses in a single day..Career Colleges Ontario first raised concerns about “indicators consistent with suspicious activity” in January 2023. Inspection notices for two of the campuses went out in October 2024, but in-person inspections did not begin until July and August 2025 — after the schools had already been approved for another year of OSAP.The province hired KPMG in August for a broader audit. Preliminary findings led the government to refer the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police and pause all OSAP payments to private post-secondary institutions on October 6.The Academy of Learning campuses have previously denied wrongdoing and say they have cut ties with some recruiters and added two-factor authentication.NDP critic Peggy Sattler said the accumulating details show the minister “was completely incompetent at doing his job” and that “these five-alarm fires were being ignored by the government.” A spokesperson for Minister Nolan Quinn said the government has “zero tolerance for bad actors who threaten the integrity of our post-secondary system.”
