The 2007 Throne Speech promised that the government would make a “major investment in the education and skills of our people,” and made direct reference to a “special distance grant for students from the north and remote areas who must commute long distances.”10 This explicit reference and subsequent implementation of the Ontario Distance Grants shows that the government understands that the needs [...] In the absence of a complete understanding of the rural and northern accessibility issue, government officials will be unable to develop and implement effective policy and programs in this area. [...] Currently, there are only two authoritative Canadian studies dealing with the question of rural and northern accessibility, and both are more than five years out of date.11 Although these studies represent an invaluable contribution to the discussion, they do not provide enough information to adequately gauge the problem of rural and northern university access, or allow for the development of comp [...] When both a university and a college are within 80km of a student's home, students are more likely to attend a university, by a 22.9 percent to 14.6 percent margin.20 However, when only a college is nearby, the numbers flip, and 20.4 percent attend college compared to only 13.6 percent for university.21 This trend clearly indicates that rural students are interested in the benefits of a post-secon [...] As a result of distance to university, cost of a degree, perceived value, and the lack of university-educated role models, these four factors combine to limit the access of a university education to rural and northern students.