About Council

For more than 40 years, COU has been working to improve the quality and accessibility of higher education in Ontario.

Originally known as the Committee of Presidents of the Universities of Ontario (CPUO), the organization was formed in 1962 in response to a need for institutional participation in educational reform and expansion. The executive head of each of Ontario's provincially assisted universities comprised the committee. The group was instrumental in policy and program initiatives implemented by the government during the universities' growth period in the '60s.

The committee was later enlarged to include two representatives from each member and associate institution: the executive head (a university president or principal) and an academic colleague appointed by each university's senior academic governing body. In 1971, the committee changed its name to the Council of Ontario Universities.

Since then, COU has been involved in a host of activities from issues management to information management; and from leadership on collective issues to general operational support for our member institutions, committees and affiliates. COU works with and on behalf of its members to meet public policy expectations of greater accountability, financial self-reliance, diversity of educational opportunity, and responsiveness to educational and marketplace needs, while supporting institutions' traditional rights of autonomy and self-regulation.

Meetings of the full Council are held regularly during the academic year, alternating with meetings of the Executive Committee. To aid in the achievement of its objectives, a full-time secretariat of approximately 30 people provides centralized service functions, along with administrative and co-ordinating support to Council, its committees, affiliates, task forces and working groups.

The officers of the Secretariat are the President; the Vice-President, Policy and Analysis; the Secretary to Council; and the Executive Directors of Corporate and Information Services, Ontario Council on Graduate Studies and the Ontario Universities' Application Centre.

Through the COU Secretariat and its numerous committees and affiliates, the Council provides many important services to its members and the community. These include research, advocacy, communications and public affairs, and the central processing of university applications.