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Tuition Costs for Canadian Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral Students
By Logan Bright
Modified on December 09, 2023
Undergraduate Canadian students: bachelor degrees
The average tuition cost for Canadian students pursuing a bachelor's degree is $6,434 per year. Several fields fall below this cost, and others are much more expensive. Remember that Canada offers many diploma programs that can be less expensive, more hands-on, and quicker to complete. Diplomas are often focused less on theory and more on tangible, career-prep experiences. So be sure to consider diploma programs, too.
Here's a list for the average costs by field for Canadian undergraduates in 2023; you can expect 2024 figures to be fairly similar. Most of these programs are four years, but many, like dentistry, medicine, and law, will often take longer, or require further education after your bachelor's degree. You may want to check out costs for grad students below as well!
These fields are ordered from most expensive to least expensive. Remember that a given school or program may be more or less expensive due to various factors, so take these as a rule of thumb.
Field of study (undergraduate)Average cost per year, CAD
Dentistry $22,586
Medicine $14,147
Veterinary medicin $14,124
Law $12,386
Pharmacy $11,427
Optometry $9,637
Engineering $8,074
Business, management and public administration $6,884
Mathematics, computer and information sciences $6,618
Architecture $6,299
Other health, parks, recreation, and fitness $5,802
Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies $5,740
Agriculture, natural resources and conservation $5,649
Nursing $5,621
Physical and life sciences and technologies $5,608
Personal, protective, and transportation services $5,595
Humanities $5,529
Social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies $5,492
Education $4,872
All programs, across Canada$6,434
Looking for info on specific provinces? Check out the StatCan data on their website using the pre-filtered searches below: *For Quebec, please be aware that the data here is gathered from before changes to tuition in Quebec for out-of-province students which will raise costs to between $9,000 and $17,000 per year for Canadians from outside Quebec.
Check out undergrad programs across Canada
Graduate Canadian students: master's and doctoral degrees
If you're going to grad school, your average program cost is pretty similar to your undergrad: $6,886 is the average, regardless of field of study, across Canada. Some programs, like MBAs, are much more expensive than other programs; even pharmacy and veterinary medicine! That said, some programs, like medicine, pharmacy, law, and so on, may require more than one or two years of study to complete.
This list only covers master's and doctoral programs: post-graduate diplomas are another option for continuing your studies beyond your degree, but on a shorter time-frame. And now, the list of tuition costs for Canadian graduate students by field of interest:
Field of study (graduate)Average cost per year, CAD
Medicine No data**
Executive MBA $41,462
Regular MBA $28,215
Business, management and public administration $12,997
Dentistry $12,078
Mathematics, computer and information sciences $8,338
Engineering $6,998
Other health, parks, recreation, and fitness $6,538
Physical and life sciences and technologies $6,413
Nursing $6,341
Education $6,326
Architecture $6,262
Personal, protective, and transportation services $6,056
Agriculture, natural resources and conservation $5,922
Social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies $5,708
Law $5,662
Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies $5,259
Humanities $4,541
Optometry $4,099
Veterinary medicine $3,852
Pharmacy $3,736
All programs, across Canada $6,886
**Medicine costs are not reported as part of this data, unfortunately. You can explore Canadian programs in the medical and health field or consider schools abroad, like the Carribean or other top-ranked schools around the world! Be sure to read this article comparing costs of med schools in Canada, the US, UK, and Caribbean to learn more about medical school tuition.
Looking for info on specific provinces? Check out the StatCan data on their website using the pre-filtered searches below:
Check out grad programs across Canada
Remember, if you want to learn the real tuition cost for the programs that interest you most, you can explore programs in all sorts of program areas, then reach out to the school and speak to a member of the recruitment team. Check out some questions you should ask, and have fun!
Take our new quiz to find the right program for you
By Logan Bright
Modified on December 09, 2023
Undergraduate Canadian students: bachelor degrees
The average tuition cost for Canadian students pursuing a bachelor's degree is $6,434 per year. Several fields fall below this cost, and others are much more expensive. Remember that Canada offers many diploma programs that can be less expensive, more hands-on, and quicker to complete. Diplomas are often focused less on theory and more on tangible, career-prep experiences. So be sure to consider diploma programs, too.
Here's a list for the average costs by field for Canadian undergraduates in 2023; you can expect 2024 figures to be fairly similar. Most of these programs are four years, but many, like dentistry, medicine, and law, will often take longer, or require further education after your bachelor's degree. You may want to check out costs for grad students below as well!
These fields are ordered from most expensive to least expensive. Remember that a given school or program may be more or less expensive due to various factors, so take these as a rule of thumb.
Field of study (undergraduate)Average cost per year, CAD
Dentistry $22,586
Medicine $14,147
Veterinary medicin $14,124
Law $12,386
Pharmacy $11,427
Optometry $9,637
Engineering $8,074
Business, management and public administration $6,884
Mathematics, computer and information sciences $6,618
Architecture $6,299
Other health, parks, recreation, and fitness $5,802
Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies $5,740
Agriculture, natural resources and conservation $5,649
Nursing $5,621
Physical and life sciences and technologies $5,608
Personal, protective, and transportation services $5,595
Humanities $5,529
Social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies $5,492
Education $4,872
All programs, across Canada$6,434
Looking for info on specific provinces? Check out the StatCan data on their website using the pre-filtered searches below: *For Quebec, please be aware that the data here is gathered from before changes to tuition in Quebec for out-of-province students which will raise costs to between $9,000 and $17,000 per year for Canadians from outside Quebec.
Check out undergrad programs across Canada
Graduate Canadian students: master's and doctoral degrees
If you're going to grad school, your average program cost is pretty similar to your undergrad: $6,886 is the average, regardless of field of study, across Canada. Some programs, like MBAs, are much more expensive than other programs; even pharmacy and veterinary medicine! That said, some programs, like medicine, pharmacy, law, and so on, may require more than one or two years of study to complete.
This list only covers master's and doctoral programs: post-graduate diplomas are another option for continuing your studies beyond your degree, but on a shorter time-frame. And now, the list of tuition costs for Canadian graduate students by field of interest:
Field of study (graduate)Average cost per year, CAD
Medicine No data**
Executive MBA $41,462
Regular MBA $28,215
Business, management and public administration $12,997
Dentistry $12,078
Mathematics, computer and information sciences $8,338
Engineering $6,998
Other health, parks, recreation, and fitness $6,538
Physical and life sciences and technologies $6,413
Nursing $6,341
Education $6,326
Architecture $6,262
Personal, protective, and transportation services $6,056
Agriculture, natural resources and conservation $5,922
Social and behavioural sciences, and legal studies $5,708
Law $5,662
Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies $5,259
Humanities $4,541
Optometry $4,099
Veterinary medicine $3,852
Pharmacy $3,736
All programs, across Canada $6,886
**Medicine costs are not reported as part of this data, unfortunately. You can explore Canadian programs in the medical and health field or consider schools abroad, like the Carribean or other top-ranked schools around the world! Be sure to read this article comparing costs of med schools in Canada, the US, UK, and Caribbean to learn more about medical school tuition.
Looking for info on specific provinces? Check out the StatCan data on their website using the pre-filtered searches below:
Check out grad programs across Canada
Remember, if you want to learn the real tuition cost for the programs that interest you most, you can explore programs in all sorts of program areas, then reach out to the school and speak to a member of the recruitment team. Check out some questions you should ask, and have fun!
Take our new quiz to find the right program for you
10 Uncomfortable-But-Necessary Financial Aid Questions You Need to Ask
By Holly Lazzaro
October 20, 2019
No matter who you are or how much you have, talking about money is awkward. But it’s especially awkward when you’re asking for it. Unfortunately, most students need to ask for money to attend college. And the number one beneficiary they’re asking? The college itself.
Navigating financial aid can be tricky; you need to know what questions to ask. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of ten key questions to ask your colleges of choice about their financial aid policies. Some of these may not apply to you, and there may be others you need to ask based on your unique situation. These ten, however, should get you off to a great start.
By Holly Lazzaro
October 20, 2019
No matter who you are or how much you have, talking about money is awkward. But it’s especially awkward when you’re asking for it. Unfortunately, most students need to ask for money to attend college. And the number one beneficiary they’re asking? The college itself.
Navigating financial aid can be tricky; you need to know what questions to ask. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of ten key questions to ask your colleges of choice about their financial aid policies. Some of these may not apply to you, and there may be others you need to ask based on your unique situation. These ten, however, should get you off to a great start.
- What is the average total cost—including tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board, and other estimated expenses—for the first year?
- How much has this average increased over the last three years?
- What percentage of students graduate with debt?
- What is the average amount of student loan debt for graduates?
- Are there on-campus work opportunities for work-study students? What if I don’t quality for a work-study job?
- Does your college practice need-blind admissions, or will applying for financial aid hurt my chances of being admitted?
- How is financial aid affected if I apply early decision or early action?
- If I am awarded a grant, can I expect it to remain constant all four years (assuming my financial circumstances don’t change)?
- If I win a scholarship, will you reduce my financial aid package? If so, will you reduce the amount of loans or the amount of grants?
- Do you provide financial aid for summer classes or study abroad programs?
Bye-bye four-year degree. Canadian companies want workers faster
The skills shortage is so acute the private sector is stepping up training programs tailored for the jobs on offer rather than wait for universities
Author of the article:
Bianca Bharti
Publishing date:
Jun 07, 2021 • June 7, 2021 • 5 minute read • 113 Comments
Tech companies have struggled to find qualified workers for years but the rapid shift to a digital economy brought on by the pandemic has made it worse. Last summer, Marcos Chumacero, an out-of-work bar manager, lolled about his downtown Toronto apartment as the world slowed to a crawl and the federal government went on COVID-19 damage control. “Like everyone else in my industry, I was collecting CERB,” he recalled, referring to the $2,000-per-month emergency benefit. A chance call to an acquaintance in social work changed his life. The friend told Chumacero, 30, about NPower, a charity that retrains younger workers who lack computer skills for jobs in the information-technology (IT) industry. He applied and was accepted into a three-month program in September that taught computer protocols and networking among other related subject matter. No more CERB.
By January, Chumacero had landed a job at Touchbistro Inc., a payments software firm for restaurants, as a bilingual product technician. He’s earning slightly less than the $5,000 per month he averaged as an experienced bartender, but that income came with 60-hour work weeks. Touchbistro asks for only 40 hours per week. The new job is also secure, comes with benefits and offers a path for upward career growth.
“They were not just looking for someone who was tech savvy, but someone who was outgoing, well spoken, obviously bilingual in this case, and that had the drive to learn fast,” he said.
Marcos Chumacero’s rapid transformation to IT specialist from bartender is one that Canada’s red-hot technology companies hope thousands of others will replicate. Chumacero’s rapid transformation to IT specialist from bartender is one that Canada’s red-hot technology companies hope thousands of others will replicate. The latest Statistics Canada data show the professional, scientific and technical services sector had more than 46,600 job vacancies in March. Last week, Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly suggested the need was even greater, telling reporters on June 3 that the Greater Toronto Area alone had 70,000 vacant technology positions.
There is a war on talent right now right across Canada and a lot of companies … can't hire fast enough
ROB DAVIS, CHIEF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION OFFICER AT KPMG CANADA Tech companies have struggled to find qualified workers for years. The skills shortage is now even more acute because the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the shift to a digital economy in which STEM skills and knowledge are key. For example, education, which has been carried out largely on the internet for the past year, is now at a place that some experts thought would take a decade to reach, according to a report last year by the federal Industry Strategy Council.
But Canada’s workforce wasn’t ready for such a drastic shift, as most of the jobs were in non-technical sectors, such as healthcare and social assistance, retail, and construction. The mismatch is forcing the private sector to step up with training programs tailored for the jobs on offer, rather than wait on a post-secondary education system based on a four-year university degree. “There is a war on talent right now right across Canada and a lot of companies, including KPMG, just sort of can’t hire fast enough,” said Rob Davis, chief diversity and inclusion officer at KPMG Canada, a consulting firm. “I think that fact alone to me says that, perhaps, we need another avenue, another source of talent than the traditional university type of degree.”
Canadian technology companies had started relying on immigration to fill the gaps. That remains an important part of the solution, but the pandemic-induced border closures exposed the downside to counting on international pipelines to fill empty positions.
Davis, along with other executives, said that rather than waiting on economic immigrants, Canada needs to overhaul its approach to training to take advantage of the large pool of workers that were left stranded by the recession. There is a plethora of workers available for retraining, as the economic downturn has pushed long-term unemployment to record levels. Statistics Canada data released last week put the number of people who had been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks at 478,000, a 166.8 per cent increase from the start of the pandemic.
By the time you finish a four-year degree, what you learn at the beginning of those four years may no longer be relevant
D'ANDRE WILSON-IHEJIRIKA, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING AND EMPLOYMENT PARTNERSHIPS AT ELEVATE Traditional paths into digital and knowledge-based jobs, where a person typically spends four or five years at university before going into the workforce, aren’t always flexible enough to meet the needs of employers, said D’Andre Wilson-Ihejirika, director of programming and employment partnerships at Elevate, the non-profit that runs annual technology festivals. “We know that technology is constantly changing and shifting very quickly,” Wilson-Ihejirika said. “So by the time you finish a four-year degree, what you learn at the beginning of those four years may no longer be relevant.” As well, people who are already working age don’t always have the luxury of spending more than $40,000 on tuition, while also putting their lives on pause for half a decade to get a STEM degree, Davis said. The sector’s reputation for being dominated by white men creates an additional barrier for marginalized communities. Joly was in Toronto to announce that the federal government, alongside the City of Toronto, had decided to give Wilson-Ihejirika’s organization $5.8 million to help fund a program that aims to prepare 5,300 people from marginalized communities in the GTA for tech-based jobs. The program lasts three months and focuses on high-demand fields, like project management, data analytics and digital marketing. “As we know, the tech sector will continue to grow and (will) need to be more inclusive to make sure that everybody is able to have access to its success,” said Joly. If the program is a success, she said it could expand countrywide.
"I quite frankly don’t care if they went to school or where they went to school",
GREG SMITH, CEO OF THINKIFIC LABS INC Executives are warming up to hiring graduates of such programs, setting aside notions that qualified candidates must have a university degree, said Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific Labs Inc., a software platform that helps people create and sell their own online courses. Smith said Thinkfic’s interview process focuses on previous projects that a candidate has completed and how that has helped him or her acquire the necessary skills. In fact, most of his software developers didn’t go to university for software development. “I quite frankly don’t care if they went to school or where they went to school,” he said. “I care if they can write great code and build great software.”
Coming from a non-tech background can only help an organization, said Sabrina Geremia, who oversees the Canadian operations of Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Google also has its own certification programs, designed to be completed in six months, that target everyone from existing IT workers who want to add to their skill sets to complete newbies. The training programs focus on high-growth, in-demand fields such as user-experience design, IT and Android development. Geremia describes the “micro-certificates” that participants receive at the end of their training as “Lego blocks” that can either be the start of a base of knowledge or add on to an existing base. “We are just at a point where the future of work is the future of lifelong learning,” Geremia said.
That’s the case for Chumacero, who used his first block of learning as a springboard to an entirely new career.
“I’ve done everything in the restaurant industry,” he said. “I can’t be convinced to go back.”
The skills shortage is so acute the private sector is stepping up training programs tailored for the jobs on offer rather than wait for universities
Author of the article:
Bianca Bharti
Publishing date:
Jun 07, 2021 • June 7, 2021 • 5 minute read • 113 Comments
Tech companies have struggled to find qualified workers for years but the rapid shift to a digital economy brought on by the pandemic has made it worse. Last summer, Marcos Chumacero, an out-of-work bar manager, lolled about his downtown Toronto apartment as the world slowed to a crawl and the federal government went on COVID-19 damage control. “Like everyone else in my industry, I was collecting CERB,” he recalled, referring to the $2,000-per-month emergency benefit. A chance call to an acquaintance in social work changed his life. The friend told Chumacero, 30, about NPower, a charity that retrains younger workers who lack computer skills for jobs in the information-technology (IT) industry. He applied and was accepted into a three-month program in September that taught computer protocols and networking among other related subject matter. No more CERB.
By January, Chumacero had landed a job at Touchbistro Inc., a payments software firm for restaurants, as a bilingual product technician. He’s earning slightly less than the $5,000 per month he averaged as an experienced bartender, but that income came with 60-hour work weeks. Touchbistro asks for only 40 hours per week. The new job is also secure, comes with benefits and offers a path for upward career growth.
“They were not just looking for someone who was tech savvy, but someone who was outgoing, well spoken, obviously bilingual in this case, and that had the drive to learn fast,” he said.
Marcos Chumacero’s rapid transformation to IT specialist from bartender is one that Canada’s red-hot technology companies hope thousands of others will replicate. Chumacero’s rapid transformation to IT specialist from bartender is one that Canada’s red-hot technology companies hope thousands of others will replicate. The latest Statistics Canada data show the professional, scientific and technical services sector had more than 46,600 job vacancies in March. Last week, Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly suggested the need was even greater, telling reporters on June 3 that the Greater Toronto Area alone had 70,000 vacant technology positions.
There is a war on talent right now right across Canada and a lot of companies … can't hire fast enough
ROB DAVIS, CHIEF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION OFFICER AT KPMG CANADA Tech companies have struggled to find qualified workers for years. The skills shortage is now even more acute because the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the shift to a digital economy in which STEM skills and knowledge are key. For example, education, which has been carried out largely on the internet for the past year, is now at a place that some experts thought would take a decade to reach, according to a report last year by the federal Industry Strategy Council.
But Canada’s workforce wasn’t ready for such a drastic shift, as most of the jobs were in non-technical sectors, such as healthcare and social assistance, retail, and construction. The mismatch is forcing the private sector to step up with training programs tailored for the jobs on offer, rather than wait on a post-secondary education system based on a four-year university degree. “There is a war on talent right now right across Canada and a lot of companies, including KPMG, just sort of can’t hire fast enough,” said Rob Davis, chief diversity and inclusion officer at KPMG Canada, a consulting firm. “I think that fact alone to me says that, perhaps, we need another avenue, another source of talent than the traditional university type of degree.”
Canadian technology companies had started relying on immigration to fill the gaps. That remains an important part of the solution, but the pandemic-induced border closures exposed the downside to counting on international pipelines to fill empty positions.
Davis, along with other executives, said that rather than waiting on economic immigrants, Canada needs to overhaul its approach to training to take advantage of the large pool of workers that were left stranded by the recession. There is a plethora of workers available for retraining, as the economic downturn has pushed long-term unemployment to record levels. Statistics Canada data released last week put the number of people who had been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks at 478,000, a 166.8 per cent increase from the start of the pandemic.
By the time you finish a four-year degree, what you learn at the beginning of those four years may no longer be relevant
D'ANDRE WILSON-IHEJIRIKA, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING AND EMPLOYMENT PARTNERSHIPS AT ELEVATE Traditional paths into digital and knowledge-based jobs, where a person typically spends four or five years at university before going into the workforce, aren’t always flexible enough to meet the needs of employers, said D’Andre Wilson-Ihejirika, director of programming and employment partnerships at Elevate, the non-profit that runs annual technology festivals. “We know that technology is constantly changing and shifting very quickly,” Wilson-Ihejirika said. “So by the time you finish a four-year degree, what you learn at the beginning of those four years may no longer be relevant.” As well, people who are already working age don’t always have the luxury of spending more than $40,000 on tuition, while also putting their lives on pause for half a decade to get a STEM degree, Davis said. The sector’s reputation for being dominated by white men creates an additional barrier for marginalized communities. Joly was in Toronto to announce that the federal government, alongside the City of Toronto, had decided to give Wilson-Ihejirika’s organization $5.8 million to help fund a program that aims to prepare 5,300 people from marginalized communities in the GTA for tech-based jobs. The program lasts three months and focuses on high-demand fields, like project management, data analytics and digital marketing. “As we know, the tech sector will continue to grow and (will) need to be more inclusive to make sure that everybody is able to have access to its success,” said Joly. If the program is a success, she said it could expand countrywide.
"I quite frankly don’t care if they went to school or where they went to school",
GREG SMITH, CEO OF THINKIFIC LABS INC Executives are warming up to hiring graduates of such programs, setting aside notions that qualified candidates must have a university degree, said Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific Labs Inc., a software platform that helps people create and sell their own online courses. Smith said Thinkfic’s interview process focuses on previous projects that a candidate has completed and how that has helped him or her acquire the necessary skills. In fact, most of his software developers didn’t go to university for software development. “I quite frankly don’t care if they went to school or where they went to school,” he said. “I care if they can write great code and build great software.”
Coming from a non-tech background can only help an organization, said Sabrina Geremia, who oversees the Canadian operations of Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Google also has its own certification programs, designed to be completed in six months, that target everyone from existing IT workers who want to add to their skill sets to complete newbies. The training programs focus on high-growth, in-demand fields such as user-experience design, IT and Android development. Geremia describes the “micro-certificates” that participants receive at the end of their training as “Lego blocks” that can either be the start of a base of knowledge or add on to an existing base. “We are just at a point where the future of work is the future of lifelong learning,” Geremia said.
That’s the case for Chumacero, who used his first block of learning as a springboard to an entirely new career.
“I’ve done everything in the restaurant industry,” he said. “I can’t be convinced to go back.”