The Financial Accountability Office has taken a look at post-secondary education funding, and found the province has doubled its spending in this area since the 1990's, even as institutions are increasingly relying on tuition.

The Government of Ontario spent, in current dollars, $3.1 billion in 1998-'99, on post-secondary education, and spent $6.3 billion, plus $371 million in post-secondary education tax credits, in 2014-'15.

However, funding per student has only increased by 31 per cent during this time, as the student population has grown.

Despite the increase, provincial funding has been declining as a share of the revenue of colleges and universities, from 38 per cent of their total revenue in 2001-'02, to 33 per cent in 2013-'14.

The institutions have been relying more on tuition, which was 22 per cent of their total revenue in 2001-'02, and 28 per cent in 2013-'14, and relying more heavily on fees and other private sources of funding.

Overall, 59.6 per cent of the current provincial funding for post-secondary education goes to universities, 24.6 per cent to colleges and the remaining 16.9 per cent is destined to support post-secondary students — and the share heading to colleges has increased slightly in recent years, the FAO found.

Seen: FAO finds provincial post-secondary funding increasing, even as tuition rises

Read this for free.