Key Trends in Elementary to Postsecondary Student Enrolments, Graduations and Tuition Fees

Key trends

• Tuition and living accommodation costs

  Tuition fees for degree programs in 2023/2024 for Canadian students

  In the 2023/2024 academic year, Canadian full-time graduate students will pay, on average, $7,573, whereas undergraduate students will pay $7,076.

  This represents a 2.2% and 3.0% increase, respectively, from the previous year.

  Across Canada, Canadian undergraduate students in Nova Scotia ($9,575) will pay the highest tuition fees, representing 35.3% more than the national average. Saskatchewan ($9,232) and New Brunswick ($8,706) also have high undergraduate tuition fees, at 30.5% and 23.0% above the national average, respectively.

  For Canadian graduate students, the top three provinces with the highest graduate tuition fees are British Columbia ($10,748), Nova Scotia ($10,548), and Ontario ($9,445), representing respectively 41.9%, 39.3% and 24.7% difference above the national average.

  Tuition fees for degree programs in 2023/2024 for international students

  In the 2023/2024 academic year, international full-time graduate students will pay, on average, $22,061, whereas undergraduate students will pay $38,081.

  This represents a 4.3% and 6.3% increase, respectively, from the previous year.

  Across Canada, international undergraduate students pay the highest tuition fees in Ontario ($46,433), which is the only province with international undergraduate fees higher than the national average (21.9% more). British Columbia ($35,266) and Quebec ($31,887) are also home to some of the highest international undergraduate tuition fees; however, these are below the national average, by 7.4% and 16.3%, respectively.

  For international graduate students, the top three provinces with the highest graduate tuition fees are Ontario ($28,152), British Columbia ($23,441), and Nova Scotia ($22,768). This represents respectively 27.6%, 6.3% and 3.2% difference above the national average.

  Tuition fees for degree programs in 2023/2024 for Canadian and international undergraduate students

  For Canadian and international undergraduate students, tuition fees are highest in professional degree programs such as dentistry, medicine, veterinary medicine, and optometry. Compared to the year before, tuition fees for Canadian undergraduate students studying veterinary medicine in Prince Edward Island and Ontario will face some of the largest year-over-year increases, at 6.0% and 7.5%, respectively.

  For international undergraduate students, tuition fees in Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan have the largest changes across Canada compared to the year before, at 17.9% and 11.6%, respectively. In particular, tuition fees for students studying math, computer and information sciences (+28.9%) in Nova Scotia, and agriculture, natural resources and conservation (+22.4%) in Saskatchewan.

  Note, not all professional degree programs are offered in all provinces.

  The tuition fee gap between Canadian and international undergraduate students across Canada is largest in the veterinary medicine ($15,532 versus $78,029), medicine ($15,558 versus $69,426), and engineering ($8,879 versus $43,606) programs.

  Tuition fees for degree programs in 2023/2024 for Canadian and international graduate students

  For Canadian and international graduate students, the executive MBA and regular MBA have the highest tuition fees.

  In 2023/2024, the fields of study with the largest tuition fee gap between Canadian and international graduate students in Canada were the executive MBA ($45,596 versus $68,224) and architecture ($6,886 versus $27,575) program.

  Tuition fees for degree programs for Canadian and international undergraduate students

  The tuition fee gap between international and Canadian undergraduate students continues to widen. Adjusted for inflation, tuition fees for Canadian undergraduate students have been slightly decreasing since 2018/2019 while they continue to increase for their international counterparts.

  Tuition fees for degree programs for Canadian and international graduate students

  The tuition fee gap between international and Canadian graduate students is lower than for undergraduate students but also continues to widen. Adjusted for inflation, tuition fees for Canadian graduate students have also been slightly decreasing since 2018/2019 while they continue to increase for their international counterparts.

• Elementary-Secondary Education Survey

  Public and private school enrolments, Canada-wide

  In 2021/2022, 5,738,181 students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools, up 0.8% from the previous school year. Of these students, 5,230,002 (+0.9%) enrolled in public schools, 441,171 (+3.5%) enrolled in private schools, while 67,008 (-20.2%) students were home-schooled. Along with the increased enrolment, the proportion of students in public school (+0.1%) and private school (+0.2%) also grew in 2021/2022.

  There were 268,077 Indigenous students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools during the 2021/2022 school year, marking a 5.0% increase from the year prior and the highest number of Indigenous students since the beginning of data series by Indigenous identity in 2015/2016. Of these students, 40.4% identified as first nations, 16.2% as Métis, and 1.8% as Inuit, while 41.7% did not specify their Indigenous identity.

  Public school enrolments by geography

  Proportionately, public school enrolment in the 2021/2022 school year increased in all provinces except Quebec (-0.1%). Manitoba (+0.8%), Prince Edward Island (+0.5%), and Newfoundland and Labrador (+0.5%) had the largest growth comparatively to the previous year.

  Private school enrolments by geography

  Private school enrolment saw minor proportional growth in all provinces except for Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.1%), and Prince Edward Island (-0.1%). Ontario and Alberta experienced the largest gains, each up 0.3 percentage points.

  Public and private school graduates

  In 2021/2022, 381,996 students graduated from secondary schools in Canada, representing a 2.2% decline from the previous year, and 0.7% less than the pre-pandemic number observed during the 2019/2020 school year. The drop in graduations was observed in both public (-2.2%), and private (-2.1%) secondary institutions.

  At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021, despite the school closures and the transition to online learning, graduation rates experienced growth. As COVID-19 restrictions loosened and schools began to re-open in 2021/2022. The number of graduates became close to  its pre-pandemic level.

  Public and private school enrolments in second language programs

  In the 2021/2022 school year, 5,230,002 students were enrolled in public schools, while 441,171 were enrolled in private schools.

  Enrolments in second language programs in private and public elementary and secondary schools represent respectively 58.0% and 56.0% of students. While those proportions were similar, they did vary by grade. Private schools had a higher proportion of students studying in second language programs for lower elementary grades and upper secondary grades (from kindergarten to grade 3, and from grade 9 to grade 11. Although public schools had lower proportion of students enrolled in second language program in total, they had a significantly higher portion of students (ranging from 13.5 to 16.4 percentage points) in second language programs in grades 4, 5 and 6.

  Second language program enrolments by sex

  In 2021/2022 there were 1,426,224 male students, and 1,418,037 female students enrolled in second language programs. Of these students, the vast majority of both male (75.9%) and female (73.0%) students were in regular second language programs. French immersion was the second highest in number of enrolments in second language program, consisting of 209,148 (14.7%) male and 251,946 (17.8%) female students. Education programs in minority official languages were the least in number, with 9.4% of male students, and 9.3% of female students falling into this category.

  By proportion, female students were more likely than male students to be enrolled in official secondary language programs. In private elementary and secondary schools, a higher portion of female students than male students were enrolled in a second language program while the reverse is seen in public schools.

  Second language program enrolments by sex and grade

  The gap in proportions of male student and female student enrolments in second language programs grows in later grades. While proportions are similar in first grades, with differences ranging from a 0.7 to 1.8 percentage points from junior kindergarten to grade 8, in secondary school this disparity grows. In Grade 9, 60.8% of female students studied in second language programs compared to 57.5% of male students, while the gap widened by 7.4 and 7.0 percentage points in grades 10 and 11. In grade 12 the proportion of both male and female students enrolled in second language programs dropped considerably, however female students remained 5.2 percentage point more than male students.

  Home-school enrolments, Canada-wide

  In the previous school year (2020/2021), and at the height of the pandemic, there was large growth in the number of students transitioning to home-schooling mode. In the 2021/2022 school year, many COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines loosened leading to a significant portion of home-schooled students to return to public or private schools. Despite this, rates remained above pre-COVID levels with 1.2% of students in home-schooling compared to 0.7% in 2019. This indicates that there may still be a residual effect of the pandemic during the 2021/2022 school year.

  The portion of students in home-schooling went down in all provinces and territories in 2021/2022 apart from Quebec (0.7%), where home-schooling rates remained very low even during the onset of the pandemic, and the Yukon where homeschool rates (3.7%) were high both during and prior to the pandemic.

  Home-school enrolments by grade, Canada-wide

  Comparatively to the previous year, the declines in home-schooling were observed in all elementary school grade levels. While all elementary grade levels had some decline in the number of home-schooled students, kindergarten, and grade 1, the same grades which experienced the highest increase during the pandemic year, had the largest drops, as each declined by nearly one-third in 2021/2022.

  Conversely, the number of home-schooled students grew in secondary school grades in 2021/2022. Grades 10 and 12 experienced the largest increase, up 12.1% and 7.6% from the year prior, while grade 9 (2.4%), and grade 11 (0.2%) also saw a relative growth.

  Compared to pre-COVID levels in 2019, all grades in both elementary and secondary school experienced a growth in home-schooled students. Elementary schools had the highest rates, especially in grade 2, where home-schooled students nearly doubled (+91.9%) compared to 2019. Secondary school had less growth but were also significantly higher than pre-COVID levels, ranging from a 56.3% increase in grade 9, to 15.7% in grade 12.

• Postsecondary Education

  Slight growth in overall postsecondary student enrolments in 2021/2022 compared to the pre-pandemic level

  In comparison to the pre-pandemic year of 2019/2020, after a slight decrease (-0.6%) in the 2020/2021 academic year due to the pandemic restrictions and regulations, postsecondary enrolments in 2021/2022 grew slightly, by 0.6%. The growth was mostly attributed to international student enrolments at the college (1.0%) and university (4.2%) levels.

  In 2021/2022, despite a slight rise in college enrolments relative to the previous academic year, they did not reach their pre-pandemic levels, with overall enrolments down by 2.9% from 2019/2020. Canadian students led this decrease with 18,996 fewer students, a decline in Canadian student college enrolments consistent with an observed trend over the last eight years.

  Comparatively, since 2019/2020, university enrolments have increased by 2.6%, with all degree program enrolments above their pre-pandemic level for Canadian and international students.

  Continuing decline in college enrolments for the trades and engineering-related programs in 2021/2022

  Although some programs experienced a slight recovery in 2021/2022 from the previous academic year, in comparison to the pre-pandemic level of 2019/2020, there was still a continuing decline in college enrolments in business, humanities, health, arts, social science, education, legal studies, trades, services, natural resources and conservation (BHASE). This decline was primarily driven by decreases in fields of study which included a work placement component, such as the trades, services, natural resources and conservation, down by 10.7% compared to 2019/2020. Similarly, within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and computer science (STEM) programs, the largest decline was reported in engineering and engineering technology, a decrease of 7.4% since 2019/2020. After a slight decline (-1.8%) in 2020/2021, college enrolments for health care programs have increased by 5.8% compared to 2019/2020.

  University enrolments increased in all programs except the arts and humanities and trade-related programs in 2021/2022

  University enrolments in all program sub-groupings increased between 2019/2020 and 2021/2022, except for the arts and humanities (-9.8%) and the trades, services, natural resources and conservation (-0.7%).

  Programs in the arts and humanities accounted for 12.8% of all enrolments in 2021/2022. Over the previous ten years, the total number of students enrolled in these programs decreased by 27.9%, from 248,109 in 2011/2012 to 178,914 in 2021/2022.

  India leading the share of international student enrolments in 2021/2022

  In the 2021/2022 academic year, 400,524 international students were enrolled in Canadian public colleges and universities. This represented a growth of 35.0% (+103,965) in enrolments since 2017/2018 when 296,559 international students were enrolled in postsecondary institutions. This increase represents a change in the proportion of international students from 14.1% to 18.3% over the same period.

  In 2017/2018, the top five countries of citizenship of international students were China (27.5%), India (22.3%), France (6.5%), the United States of America (3.5%), and South Korea (2.4%). By 2021/2022, India replaced China in the top position, which was the reported country of citizenship for almost one third of all international student enrolments (from 20.1% in 2017/2018 to 32.2% in 2021/2022).

  In addition, between 2017/2018 and 2021/2022, there has been a shift in the top five countries of citizenship with the United States of America and South Korea being replaced by Iran and Nigeria for the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

  The pace of growth increased for postsecondary graduates in the 2021 calendar year

  In the 2021 calendar year, 634,431 students graduated from a public postsecondary institution. This number represented an increase of 7.5% from the 2020 calendar year, a significantly higher year-over-year change than the average 2.0% observed during the previous five years.

  Compared to the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019, postsecondary graduates increased by 8.1% in 2021. The growth was attributed to both international and domestic students. International students experienced an increase of 20.5% and 23.1% for university and college graduations, respectively, whereas Canadian university graduates reported an increase of +7.5%.

  Although Canadian college graduates experienced the sole decline (-1.3%) since 2019, compared to 2020, Canadian student college graduates recovered slightly in 2021 despite remaining below their pre-pandemic level. The decline in Canadian student college graduates is consistent with a similar decrease in enrolments for this population group which started before the pandemic years.

  Health care graduates rebound above pre-pandemic level

  In 2021, the number of graduates who completed health care programs accounted for 12.7% of all graduates. Since the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019, a 9.7% increase in health care graduates has been observed. The growth was more pronounced for college graduates, up 11.5% since 2019, followed by university graduates (7.7%).

  Looking more specifically at general healthcare programs, the number of nursing graduates increased in 2020 and surpassed their pre-pandemic level of 2019, up 4.9%. Almost all provinces have experienced a recovery in nursing graduates since 2019.

  Graduates from programs such as the trades, services, natural resources and conservation were still below their pre-pandemic level (-1.7%) however, they showed signs of recovery in the 2021 calendar year. The decline was mainly attributed to college graduates from trades, services, natural resources and conservation programs (-5.2%).