Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance



What is OUSA?


The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) was formed in 1992 by an informal group of student governments. The goal was to present a unified voice on issues that affect Ontario’s undergraduate students in order to more effectively lobby the provincial government for change.


The Brock University Students’ Union was one of five founding members when OUSA was formalized in 1994. 


Today, OUSA represents over 130,000 students across Ontario; coming together to protect the interests of Ontario’s full and part-time undergraduate students by providing research and ideas to governments on how to improve the quality and accessibility of post-secondary education in Ontario. Member Student Unions now include Queen’s, Western, Wilfred Laurier, McMaster, Waterloo, Windsor and Brock.


What has OUSA done for you? Successes for Students!


OUSA has a long record of success in advocating for change in Ontario’s post-secondary policies with its partners. Some notable accomplishments include:

  • successfully lobbied for a two-year tuition freeze and associated funding to ensure quality
  • successfully lobbied to update the definition of “independent” student from five to four years
  • successfully lobbied to reduce the expected parental contribution for OSAP recipients
  • increasing post-secondary funding with a 6.2 Billion investment by 2009
  • introduced a system of first and second year grants for low-income students, providing up to $9,000 over two years;
  • increased the financial aid package to better reflect the cost of attending university while increasing current back-end grants through the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant (OSOG) to ensure that student debt does not increase
  • improved interest relief for graduates in the greatest need
  • the creation of textbook and technology grants for students
  • distance grants for students who live 80km or more from a university
  • raised the maximum amount of weekly income for students receiving OSAP from $52 to $104

How do students get involved with OUSA ?


OUSA is guided by a Steering Committee, which forms the Board of Directors for the organization. This committee consists of one representative from each member student association. The Vice President University Affairs is BUSU’s delegate to Steering Committee, which meets at least once per month.


Twice a year (usually once in October and once in March), an OUSA General Assembly is held at one member campus. Delegates to the General Assembly are allocated based on proportional representation, with one representative per 3,000 students, plus Steering Committee members. BUSU delegates to OUSA General Assemblies are selected from the External Affairs Committee (link to: http://www.busu.net/en/content/advocacy/external). If committee members are unable to attend, the vacancies are filled through motions at BUSAC.


BUSU also sends delegates to an annual Lobby Conference in Toronto. OUSA schedules meetings with as many MPPs, employees in the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, political staffers, and partner organizations as possible. This massive, concentrated effort is an attempt to influence the government’s agenda and educational priorities.


If you have questions about OUSA, or want to know how to become involved, please contact the Vice President University Affairs, Luke Speers, by phone at extension 4198, or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .