TORONTO — Three Academy of Learning franchise locations drew more than $219 million in OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) grants in 2024-25 for about 14,800 students, while every publicly funded college in Ontario together qualified for about $385 million. Those three sites are now in court trying to reverse a cutoff of financial aid.Court records in the judicial-review case show Ontario inspectors found students who could not name their school or program, and evidence that third parties completed coursework — sometimes an entire course in a single day. The OSAP compliance unit wrote in a September 2025 report that Academy of Learning Bay, a downtown Toronto site, “is unable to demonstrate that OSAP-funded students are actively participating in the programs they are enrolled in.”A Brampton East report, which also covers a North York branch campus, described one account in which every quiz and the final exam in a business-writing course were finished the same day, with the exam taking six minutes. At the Bay St. location, 39 of 42 student files examined had IP addresses used to open accounts belonging to other students, all referred by the same recruiter. Of six students inspectors tried to reach, three took a call, and those interviews found people who could not name their institution, program, or courses, could not communicate in English, or said they attended in person while enrolled online..Career Colleges Ontario had flagged 10 schools to the province in January 2025, including these three, after OSAP applications jumped 500% and 600% in two years while other schools were largely flat. Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn told five career colleges, including the three Academy of Learning sites, on May 1 that they would not be OSAP-eligible as of Aug. 1. The three schools, which share a parent company, argue Quinn had no power to predetermine this year’s eligibility and that the cutoff is unreasonable.The schools deny most of the allegations. They say students may have treated federal verification calls as scams and that shared IP addresses can come from dynamic addresses assigned by Bell, Rogers, and Cogeco. The Academy said the concerns cover a period already subject to corrective plans and two-factor authentication, and that a short time on the online platform does not by itself prove a student did not study offline. Federal letters in the court file, sent in September 2025, separately alleged sharp growth in claimants at the Bay and Brampton sites, applications completed by the same person or group, and students who could not be confirmed as eligible. None of the findings has been proven in court.
