by Chris Peterson
Toronto’s Randolph College for the Performing Arts is closing its doors, leaving students scrambling just as the new academic year was supposed to begin.
And the more I read about how this happened, as someone who works in higher education, the more bothered I am by the timeline.
According to CBC, the Toronto performing arts school can no longer operate as a career college after failing to renew its registration with the Ontario government. That registration expired February 1, 2026. Without it, Randolph no longer had permission to offer the vocational programs that require approval under Ontario’s Career Colleges Act. Students apparently didn’t receive the official “notice of closure” from the ministry until last week.
February. That’s the part I can’t get past.
To be fair, I have no reason to believe Randolph simply ignored the problem for seven months. The school may very well have been communicating and working with the provincial government that entire time.
I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why the students apparently weren’t given a clearer picture of the risk.
CBC spoke with student Lily Burden and her father, Steve, who said students and parents had been told since February that the situation would be fixed. Steve Burden said they were initially led to believe it was essentially an auditing issue that Randolph was working to resolve. What they apparently were not told was that the school could ultimately be forced to close.
That distinction is enormous. Because students make decisions based on the information their college gives them. They pay tuition. They turn down other schools. They plan their lives around completing a program.
And while all of this was going on, Randolph was still recruiting. Sorry, but that deserves some explaining.
There’s a big difference between administrators believing they can resolve a regulatory problem and administrators continuing to recruit students without making that problem crystal clear to them.
CBC reported that the school had not responded to its request for comment at the time of publication.
If your ability to legally operate a program has expired, prospective students deserve to know that before they enroll. Current students deserve to know exactly what it could mean for their education. Parents shouldn’t have to translate “we’re working on it” into “there is a possibility this school might not exist next semester.”
The ministry says eligible students may be able to access a fund that could help them continue their training elsewhere or receive a partial refund. That’s important.
But it doesn’t give anyone those seven months back.
And Randolph needs to explain what students were told, what administrators knew, and why the school was apparently still recruiting for September long after its registration had expired.