OISE Review

As a student and staff at OISE, I know that it is one special place. There are so many opportunities to learn and grow as a person. Don't miss out on the possibilities that await.

Saw a guy playing violin in the staircase. 5 stars for being connected to the subway

Do not go to the cafe. There is a Starbucks and Tim Hortons close enough to save yourself from buying their nasty coffee. They do not know how to brew coffee here. There are grinds all over the inside of my cup.

I attend this school. Profs are amazing and I'm receiving quality education. The cafe has got to go! So over priced.

Nice quiet spot to study or meet someone. Comfortable couches. Access to subway directly inside building.

Fantastic place to learn. The best education school in Canada. Ranked 5th in the world, between Cambridge and Oxford. Well known name around the world.

If you want to be indoctrinated into anti-colonial (as opposed to all other colonial education programs UofT offers) or some other complete non-sense education, I would recommend OISE. Questioning the dogma is strictly forbidden.

Open minds go here to get the door shut on them. Their professors are not deserving of their degrees or titles.

Great for weekend lectures. Tim Hortons and Starbucks close by.

A wonderful place for learning and developing.. with a good staff.

Everyone here is ideologically possessed, they have no respect for freedom of speech or expression, let alone freedom, and are totalitarian in every regard.

Clean building and washrooms. Subway station E-W line access directly in building. Parking on weekends $6 all day 2 min walk. Tim Hortons 1 min walk.

what e-mail address are we going to write at the university?

OISE should be immediately defunded. They're one of the most dangerous institutions in Canada.

Older building with difficult-to-reach, obscure rooms. Make sure to leave early in order to find everything and not be late

Elitist, Unprofessional, Belligerent - Recently, I applied to the Healthcare Tech 9/10 AQ course and I want to share that experience. I have 5 years experience working in ambulatory care as a Registered Optician and 3 years working as a Teacher.

Last summer, I called OISE and asked if my healthcare background could be assessed for admittance to the Healthcare Technology course. They said that wouldn't be a problem to do within a few weeks and to send in my application, which I did.

Four months later, after I had spoken with reception several times, and after I paid the course fee, I received an email that said "Thanks for your interest, but your application is rejected." I had to call OISE again to find why it was rejected, was there an appeal process, and would I receive a refund?

The secretary, Melissa Casco, informed me that my application "didn't meet all the criteria of: dispensing, assessing, prescribing, or diagnosing." Well, dispensing and assessments comprise the majority of the R.O. scope of practice; so, her statement was incorrect. With another follow-up she directed to the course assessor.

The conversation with David Graves, the course assessor, began with him telling me "I spoke with my buddy who's an optometrist and he said that Opticians are just techs." I responded by telling him "I'm sorry, but you've been misinformed." His response was to shout me down by repeating "You just machine lenses! You're a tech!"

He stopped when I said "Asking an optometrist about the scope of practice of an Optician for the purpose of admission to the Healthcare course is invalid. You need to speak with College of Opticians to assess our scope of practice."

His response was that he had "Googled Opticianry," but when pressed was unable to name a website. He said he would speak with his optometrist friend's tech or the Optician at the school of optometry at Waterloo." Again I said that wasn't a valid form of assessment.

During the conversation Mr. Graves did accept fitting contact lenses as acceptable healthcare experience. He would not accept the assessments associated with and the fitting of spectacles as healthcare, even though those tasks are defined as part of the controlled act of dispensing subnormal vision devices (Health Regulators Act), because "my buddy's tech does that."

What Mr. Graves doesn't grasp is that his optometrist friend has delegated that controlled act to his 'tech' and is supposed to be directly supervising the tech's performance of that act. When I tried to explain that to Mr. Graves, he just interrupted me.

Mr. Graves did point out that Opticians do not write refractive prescriptions, which is true. We take a prescription that only has the date, prescribers name, and refractive error and do our own assessments to determine the type of lens required.

Those assessments include determining the spectacles intended use, the size and mounting characteristics of the frame, the de-centration of the optical centre of the lens, and compensation to the prescription due to focal length requirements, tilt, wrap, and thickness induced errors. The Government of Ontario defines this as healthcare under the Health Regulators Act, but David Graves knows better!

The last problem I have is with being held to the standards of diagnosing and prescribing. Medical Laboratory Technologist is one of the extension courses to the Healthcare Tech program listed on the professional development page of the OCT website. Registered Practical Nurse is listed as acceptable experience on OISE s own Healthcare Technology page. Neither of these professions diagnose or prescribe as part of their scope of practice.

I don't know what Mr. Graves' background is in regards to healthcare. His understanding of the field is very limited. In dealing with OISE I did anticipate a certain level of elitism, but I was really shocked by the gross professional incompetence and belligerent attitude displayed by the staff mentioned in this review.

My home in Canada, especially English Language Program.The Best English course in a great environment with great people. Foods are so expensive in this building. Better get out and eat outside in places such as Tim Hortons. The entrance is on the side, not on the street side.

Foods are so expensive in this building. Better get out and eat outside in places such as tim Hortons. You can view the city from the top floor.

most of their articles aren't cited even once, the scholarship is terrible as a result of this postmodern neo-marxist intellectual invasion funded by your tax dollars and used to attack and indoctrinate children as young as they can find them

Defund this appalling organization which uses tax dollars to push a post-modernist anti-capitalist message to infect the minds of the young. I cannot think of a worse use of tax money than this organisation which advocates repression of free speech, expanded government power over individuals and agenda-led policies. Horrible.