The OCQAS has a clearly defined and publicly available Vision and Mission statement that communicates its role, purpose, and scope in the external quality assurance of higher education within Ontario’s public college system. The current mission articulates the OCQAS’s commitment “to guide and support Ontario’s public colleges in building a culture of world-class quality assurance, leading to education excellence recognized by students, graduates, employers, government, and the communities they serve.” This statement reflects the OCQAS’s accountability to its invested parties and its commitment to ensuring the quality, consistency, integrity, and continuous improvement of credentials across the system.

This mission is realized primarily through the delivery of the Credential Validation Service (CVS) and the College Quality Assurance Audit Process (CQAAP), which together reinforce public confidence in the quality of Ontario college programs while respecting institutional autonomy and promoting continuous enhancement across the sector.

The mission statement is publicly available on the OCQAS website and is embedded within the OCQAS Strategic Plan 2025-2030.

The OCQAS maintains a practice of reviewing its Vision and Mission as part of its cyclical strategic planning process, typically undertaken every five years. This ensures that its guiding statements remain relevant, responsive to the evolving higher education environment, and meaningful to its community. As part of this process, the OCQAS considers sector developments, interested parties’ expectations, and international quality assurance practices in determining whether revisions are required.

For example, the previous Mission and Vision statements were as follows:

• Mission: To guide and support the public college system in Ontario through institutional quality assurance to achieve a standard of excellence recognized by students, graduates, employers, government, and the communities they serve.
• Vision: To be acknowledged globally as a leading post-secondary education quality assurance agency in Canada.

These earlier statements emphasized institutional quality assurance and global recognition. The revised mission expands this focus to explicitly include the development of a quality culture and a broader articulation of the OCQAS’s role in supporting continuous improvement across the system.

The periodic revision of the mission ensures that the OCQAS remains aligned with changes in the higher education landscape, including evolving modes of delivery, invested party expectations, and international standards such as the ISG. This approach reflects good practice in maintaining a mission that is not static, but adaptive, forward-looking, and reflective of the agency’s current scope and impact.

The mission of the OCQAS was developed and continues to be maintained through extensive invested party collaboration. When the OCQAS was established (2003–2005), the mission and operational framework were shaped by a joint working group comprising representatives from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU), the Coordinating Committee of Vice-Presidents, Academic (CCVPA), and the Committee of Presidents (CoP) of Ontario’s colleges.

Subsequent revisions and reaffirmations of the mission have consistently involved consultation. The current mission statement was informed initially by extensive sector input gathered through a tour of Ontario’s 24 public colleges (Invitations to the 24-College Tour), ensuring that institutional perspectives, system priorities, and shared quality assurance challenges were well understood.

Building on this sector-wide input, the mission was drafted during a strategic planning meeting involving the OCQAS staff and subsequently brought forward for consultation with the OCQAS Management Board. A dedicated task group drawn from the Management Board was then established to refine the mission statement, ensuring alignment with the OCQAS’s mandate, sector expectations, and public accountability responsibilities (Invitation for Board Task Group to refine Mission Statement, Agenda OCQAS Management Board February 17 2026, Minutes of Management Board Meeting February 17 2026).

More broadly, the mission, vision, and strategic direction of the OCQAS are shaped through the agency’s strategic planning process, which includes consultation with OCQAS staff, the Management Board, Ontario’s 24 public colleges through the 24-College Tour, and sector bodies such as Coordinating Committee of Vice Presidents Academic (CCVPA), Heads of Quality Management (HQM), Curriculum Development Affinity Group (CDAG), College Student Alliance (CSA), Ontario Student Voices (OSV), and Colleges Ontario, before final approval by the Management Board (OCQAS Strategic Plan 2025-2030 Development Process).