OSAP KPI Guidelines
Appropriate accountability mechanisms are crucial in all sectors within Ontario's postsecondary education system to protect students, ensure accountability and promote the successful achievement of institutions' objectives. Performance measurement, through the collection of performance indicators, is an important accountability tool.
For private institutions in Ontario seeking first-time approval for the purposes of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities ("the Ministry") has defined two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure and evaluate.
The two KPIs are:
The operating procedure outlined in this manual applies to all private institutions in Ontario that are seeking first-time approval for the purposes of OSAP and do not receive direct operating funding from the Ministry including registered private career colleges.
This website is intended to provide you, as a school seeking OSAP eligibility, with steps required to allow Forum Research Inc. (Forum), to calculate graduation and employment rates for your OSAP eligible programs.
To get started with your application process, please follow the steps below:
Schools wanting to begin the process should start by reviewing the Important Documents section of this website.
They will then fill out the registration form which will include the school's information, the primary KPI contact's information and a confirmation of agreement to the Pro Forma contract.
Once the registration has been verified, the school will be sent their login information. The registration verification process may take up to a week or longer at the beginning of the program.
Download the data file templates and sample Auditor's Letter of Engagement. This can be acquired both through this site and after logging in.
The school should then prepare the data files and the Auditor's Letter of Engagement according to the Audit Guidelines and Operating Procedure, and submit them through the website.
The format of the files will automatically be checked and detailed error messages will be displayed if any problems are found. File issues should be fixed and then the files should be resubmitted.
Have the submitted files audited by the auditor and have the auditor submit any file modifications along with their final Audit Report through the Auditor's Portal.
Once the files have been submitted, the auditor will automatically receive a link to this portal so it is very important that the auditor's email address is correct when uploading the files.
Once the auditor has submitted their final report (and any changed files if necessary), the school should submit the deposit payment through the online system.
The amount of this will depend on the estimated number of completions and will be automatically calculated through the online portal.
Send a notice to the students to tell them that Forum will be contacting them in the near future. This will help us achieve a greater response rate.
During the survey period, Forum Research will provide a listing of any students that are hard to find.
In order to ensure we reach as many students as possible, schools should do their best to submit any extra contact information they can find for these students.
Once the project has concluded, schools will be contacted to pay the final invoice based on the number of completes achieved.
Once this has been done, Forum Research will release the results to the school and the Ministry.
| Name | Description | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Procedure | 2023 First Time Approval KPI Operating Procedures and Performance Objectives | English(.pdf) |
| Auditor Guidelines | 2023 First Time Approval KPI Audit Guidelines | English(.pdf) |
| Graduation Rate Data File Template | Excel template for the Graduation Rate Data File. | English(.xlsx) |
| Graduate Employment Rate Data File Fields | Excel template for the Graduate Employment Rate Data File Fields. | English(.xlsx) |
| Sample Auditor Letter of Engagement | Sample template for the Auditor Letter of Engagement extracted from the Audit Guidelines. Reminder: This must be submitted both to Forum and the Ministry. |
English(.pdf) |
| Audit Report Template | Template for the final auditor's report extracted from the Audit Guidelines. | English(.pdf) |
| Pro Forma Contract | 2025 Pro Forma Contract. Note: It is not necessary to sign and fill this out. You must agree to it at the time of registration. |
English(.pdf) |
Note: You will need to install a free PDF Viewer to view the PDF files.
A. The timeframe can vary greatly because it depends on the number of students to be surveyed and the time it takes to:
Once we receive the deposit, it typically takes about six weeks to complete the survey portion of the process.
A. If you have reviewed this website and the documents provided in the Important Documents section, and you still have questions, please contact nonosap@forumresearch.com.