The 2026 Maclean’s University rankings show a concerning trend for Ontario universities when it comes to the ratio of students to faculty in all categories – primarily undergraduate, comprehensive, and medical doctoral. In the medical doctoral category, for example, the University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, Queen’s University, and McMaster University ranked in the bottom four out of 15 institutions nationally. As a province, Ontario has the worst student to faculty ratio, with an average of 30 students per professor. The Canadian average is 24.6. With a growing number of students in the university-age demographic, the province has an opportunity to improve these ratios going forward. In the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years, for example, first-year undergraduate registrations from Ontario secondary school students exceeded the 2003 double cohort numbers.

OCUFA member organizations regularly bring key priority issues such as class size and staff complement to the bargaining table with the double objective of addressing workload for faculty and academic librarians and improving student learning conditions. In the 2025 rankings, Maclean’s included class size numbers, where Ontario universities also lag behind. For first and second year courses, the average class size at Ontario universities is 73 students, while for universities in other provinces the average is 49. For third and fourth year courses, the average class size is close to 31 students in Ontario, while for other provinces the average is 25. While there are many factors that can influence a student’s learning experience, research shows that large classes generally have a negative impact on student learning and engagement. With proper government funding, public universities would be able to offer students a higher quality experience, and in turn, value for their tuition dollars.