TORONTO (CUP) — Students and faculty are expressing concerns over Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty’s seemingly “Band-Aid” approach to solving post-secondary issues in the province.

McGuinty’s March 8 throne speech announced the government’s commitment to education by increasing the number of students attending the province’s universities and colleges by 20,000, but student and faculty groups are left wondering if the government will address the high cost of tuition and staffing issues.

"The additional 20,000 student spaces announced in today's throne speech only addresses half of the estimated space needed to accommodate Ontario's future students," Shelley Melanson, chairperson of the Ontario component of the Canadian Federation of Students, wrote in a statement after the speech.

"With Ontario students paying the highest tuition fees in the country, we were disappointed to hear that there were no measures announced to help current students."

The government’s speech from the throne provided few details about its plan for post-secondary students beyond its promise of a five-year plan to “improve the quality” of Ontario’s schools.

“Your government will work with all its partners in education, training and business to develop a new, five-year plan to improve the quality of Ontario's post-secondary education system. Because to put it simply — the places with the strongest schools, today, will have the strongest economies tomorrow,” said Lt.-Gov. David Onley as he read the speech.

The province’s faculty are wondering where the additional staff will come from to teach these new students — and where the money will come from to pay for them.

“The McGuinty government, in their haste to put up new buildings to accommodate new students, seems to have forgotten that these new facilities need to be staffed by full-time professors and academic librarians,” read a statement from Mark Langer, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).

“Premier McGuinty is framing the expansion of the university system as a question of access, but unless these new students have the benefit of full-time professors, reasonable class sizes and meaningful course choices, you really have to ask the question: Access to what?” Langer wrote.

OCUFA argues that the government needs to focus on increasing operating funds for post-secondary institutions in the province if they wish to honour their commitment to building a knowledge-based economy.

Between 45,000 and 75,000 new students in the greater Toronto area alone will be looking to attend university or college in the next five years — which means 20,000 new spots would be inadequate, says OCUFA.

"Universal access to education is critical to ensuring the long-term viability of Ontario's economy and without proper investment in post-secondary education, the province's universities and colleges will not meet the increased demands of changing population," said Melanson.

The Ontario government also announced its plans to aggressively recruit internationally for students.

The full Ontario budget for 2010-11 is expected to be released on March 25. The budget will include funding details for many promises and ideas presented in the throne speech.