A new study shows a third of first-year college students in Ontario are in danger of not graduating because they flunked or barely scraped through their math course.

Researchers at Seneca College who conducted the study say that equates to about 10,000 students.

About 67 per cent of students achieved good grades — As, Bs, and Cs — slightly better than last year.

The governing Liberals are focusing on post-secondary education as a way to pull Ontario out of a major economic recession.

Monday's throne speech promised to increase the portion of the province's population that has a university or colleges education to 70 per cent from 62 per cent.

The government also promised to create 20,000 new post-secondary spaces this fall and increase the number of foreign students to about 54,000 from 37,000.

The Seneca study focused on the math results of 30,000 college students, but also examined the records of almost 80,000 students who enrolled in college in the fall of 2008.