The City of Brampton has renewed its push for provincial government funding for a university, after the Doug Ford government pulled the plug on a previously approved Ryerson satellite campus last October.

The city announced the launch of a new campaign dubbed “BramptonU,” aimed at attracting partnerships and lobbying the provincial government to fund a full university campus in Canada’s ninth-largest city.

“We’re proposing a new, innovative solution — BramptonU — a city-led effort with the goal to get provincial (government) approval to launch our own fully accredited university right here in Brampton,” said Mayor Patrick Brown in a video posted on the BramptonU website.

According to a new website dedicated to the initiative, the city is exploring “partnerships and approaches” to build and operate a brick-and-mortar Brampton University campus, possibly including student housing.

“We need the Province to commit funding and pass legislation to launch BramptonU,” says the city on the site. “We’re advocating with the Province — at multiple levels — to get support for BramptonU.”

While the city is home to Sheridan College’s Davis Campus and has been investing in smaller-scale partnerships with Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education and Algoma University — which recently announced plans to further expand its downtown Brampton campus from 500 to 1,000 students by 2023 — a full university campus remains a big component of its 2040 Vision.

The provincial government announced it was axing $90 million in funding committed by the previous Liberal government for a Ryerson University-Sheridan College campus in the city’s downtown. The announcement came just one day after the 2018 municipal elections that saw Brown elected mayor.

The city had allocated $120 million to the now-defunct project, which has since been transferred to fund a planned innovation centre and cybersecurity catalyst.

There is no municipal funding currently allocated for a Brampton university, but the city has set aside $300,000 to create a “blueprint for bringing BramptonU into existence.”

"Right now, BramptonU is a movement, a process to bring a full university to Brampton," said the city. “The goal for BramptonU is to transform it from a process into a living, breathing university, offering leading undergraduate and graduate degrees in skills to prepare for in-demand jobs of the future.”