How Post-Secondary Education Works in Ontario: Institutions, Degrees and Credentials

Ontario's three tracks of post-secondary education

Ontario post-secondary education splits into three tracks: universities, public colleges, and private career colleges. Each track answers to different rules, grants different credentials, and serves a different purpose. Knowing which track a program sits in tells you what credential you walk away with and how much government oversight the program gets before it launches.

Universities grant their own degrees

Ontario has 21 members of the Council of Ontario Universities : 20 publicly assisted universities plus the Royal Military College of Canada as an associate member. Each university operates under its own provincial act, giving it direct legal authority to grant bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Well known members include the University of Toronto, Western University, Queen's University, the University of Waterloo, McMaster University, York University and the University of Ottawa.

Because each act stands on its own, individual universities set their own admission averages, program mix and campus locations. A degree from any of the 21 carries the same provincial recognition, regardless of the size or age of the institution that grants it.

The province funds part of each university's operating budget through grants tied to enrolment, while tuition and mandatory ancillary fees cover the rest. Each university sets and publishes its own fee schedule and admission requirements, so two Ontario universities charge different tuition for the same type of program.

Colleges focus on career-ready credentials

The 24 publicly assisted colleges, represented by Colleges Ontario , grant one-year certificates, two-year diplomas, three-year advanced diplomas, one-year graduate certificates for people who already hold a diploma or degree, and a growing number of bachelor's degrees in applied fields such as nursing, business and technology once each program clears provincial review. Programs mix classroom instruction with co-op placements and applied projects built around specific occupations.

A handful of colleges brand themselves as polytechnics to signal a heavier mix of applied-degree and research-active programming. This is a self-adopted label rather than a separate legal category. Polytechnic-branded colleges still operate under the same college funding and governance rules as the rest of the sector.

Career colleges cover short, targeted training

Privately owned career colleges register under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005 and run short vocational programs, often under a year, in fields such as personal support work, esthetics and skilled trades. Consumer protection and program registration for this track sits with the Ministry directly, separate from the degree quality review that applies to universities and colleges.

Indigenous Institutes: a fourth pillar

Ontario recognizes nine Indigenous Institutes in regulation under the Indigenous Institutes Act, 2017 , alongside universities, colleges and career colleges. These institutes are Indigenous-governed and grant certificates, diplomas and, in some cases, degrees rooted in Indigenous knowledge and community priorities. The Indigenous Advanced Education and Skills Council coordinates funding and quality processes across this pillar, separate from PEQAB and OCQAS. Metis students who move to Ontario for school can also look into home-province support such as Metis Nation-Saskatchewan's post-secondary funding program, which travels with eligible students wherever they enrol.

Who checks program quality

The Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security sets funding and policy for the whole post-secondary system. Two other bodies check quality at different levels.

• The Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB) reviews and recommends ministerial consent whenever a college, private institution or out-of-province university applies to offer a degree program or use the term university in Ontario. Ontario's 21 existing universities already hold degree-granting authority under their own acts, so PEQAB does not review their individual programs.

• The Ontario College Quality Assurance Service (OCQAS) audits how colleges run their existing diploma and certificate programs against province-wide standards, through cyclical program reviews.

Individual professions add a further layer of accreditation on top of this system. Engineering programs need accreditation from Engineers Canada, nursing programs answer to the College of Nurses of Ontario, and many business programs pursue accreditation from bodies such as AACSB. This layer sits apart from PEQAB and OCQAS and affects your ability to register or practice in a regulated profession after graduation.

Credential levels at a glance

The academic calendar

Most programs run on a Fall, Winter and Summer term structure. Fall term starts in September and runs through December, Winter term runs January through April, and a Summer term from May through August fills out the year for programs that offer it. Most new students start in the Fall term, though some college programs and a smaller number of university programs also open a January intake.

Moving between colleges and universities

Credit does not transfer automatically between institutions. The Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) maintains ontransfer.ca , a searchable database of transfer agreements between specific programs at specific colleges and universities. Check it before you assume a college diploma will shorten a university degree, or that university courses will count toward a college advanced diploma. Individual transfer credit still goes through an assessment by the receiving institution.