Everest College Update

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The Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities has provided an update on the Everest College suspension and the ongoing role of the Ministry.

Back on February 19th, the Superintendent of Private Career Colleges made the decision to immediately suspend the operations of Everest College and subsequently revoked Everest’s registration as a private career college.

It is stressed that this decision was made by the Superintendent of Private Career Colleges, not by the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

The Superintendent made the decision to protect current and future Everest students. The Superintendent was no longer satisfied that Everest College could be expected to be financially responsible in their operation of a private career college and in the offering of its vocational programs.

On February 20th, Everest Colleges filed an assignment in bankruptcy.

This decision does not impact students who have already graduated from the college.

The Ministry says that their role has been to help affected students and staff, and has been doing so since the Superintendent made her decision last Thursday. Ministry staff are currently providing information to affected students and advising them to prepare and submit their claim forms related to the Training Completion Assurance Fund.

Between Thursday, February 19th and February 20th, Ministry staff were on the ground at every Everest campus across Ontario providing support and information for students.

In total, 47 ministry staff have provided over 40 information sessions to more than 2,000 students at the 14 Everest campuses to advise them of next steps and distribute Training Completion Assurance Fund (TCAF) packages.

Ministry staff have received and are responding to 597 emails and have conducted 163 telephone counsel sessions through the TCU hotline

Starting on Monday, February 23rd, the Superintendent and ministry staff began contacting students by email and phone to advise them of next steps, including how to apply for training completion at another institution or how to file a claim for a tuition refund. Staff have already begun identifying training completion options, and will be contacting those students who have submitted their TCAF Claim Forms with their options.

Once their options are presented to them, students will have 14 days to assess their options and select from the available training completion options or request a refund. Once a TCAF Claim Form is submitted, the ministry will make every effort to provide appropriate training completion options or partial refunds to eligible students as quickly as possible.

Throughout the process, the Superintendent is working with the TCAF Advisory Board to ensure the best interests of students remains the highest priority. While this is still a challenging situation for students, Everest’s bankruptcy does not change these ongoing efforts.

The Ministry says they are also working to ensure that students have additional flexibility when it comes to financial assistance.

The Ontario Government says that they will ensure that the loans of OSAP students who complete their training at another institution will not enter repayment until six months after they have completed training at the alternate institution.

In addition, for students who choose not to complete their training, loans will enter repayment six months after the date that they would have completed the program at Everest College. This ensures that students are not expected to begin payments on their loans any sooner than they otherwise would have.

Everest students that have not yet received the full amount of their OSAP money will receive these funds upon beginning their new training completion program.

For more information, Students can contact the ministry by e-mail at [email protected].

For Tuesday, February 24th only, affected students may call 416-314-0500 or 1-866-330-3395.

Beginning on Wednesday, February 25th and onward, affected students may call 1-888-449-4478.