It’s Canada Day on 1 July and to celebrate this fascinating country, we’ve compiled a list of the ten best universities in Canada.
Canada is a country of 40 million inhabitants and it has the second-largest area of any country in the world. With such numbers, it’s no wonder Canada is also home to many excellent universities. If you’re interested in studying in Canada, either for your whole degree, or for a year abroad, check out this article. Once you’ve found a university you’d like to attend, your next step is to find student accommodation. You’re in luck, because Student.com offers student accommodation in Canada in about 30 cities across the country!
The rankings in this article are based on the prestigious QS World University Rankings for the year 2023.
1. McGill University
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Global university rank: 31st
McGill University is an English-language university in Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec. Founded already back in 1821 by a Scottish merchant who lived in the area, today McGill has about 40,000 students. McGill offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study and is the only Canadian university that is a member of the Global University Leaders Forum. No other university in Canada has more Nobel laureates (12) and Rhodes Scholars (147) among its alumni than McGill.
2. University of Toronto
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Global university rank: 34th
The University of Toronto was founded in 1827 as King’s College. As the name might suggest, it was founded by the British and was originally controlled by the Church of England. It became a secular institution in 1850, and since then it has been known by its current name. A vast university of almost 65,000 students in the Toronto campus alone, and almost 100,000 in total, it is by far the largest Canadian university in terms of student population. UToronto offers more than 700 different undergraduate programs and is the origin of the Toronto School, an influential school of thought in literary criticism and communication theory. Five Prime Ministers of Canada are alumni of the university.
3. University of British Columbia
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Global university rank: 47th
Founded in 1908 and with a student population of about 65,000, the University of British Columbia is the second-largest university in Canada. With a strong focus on research, it houses the largest cyclotron in the world. It is also the site of the first Max Planck Institute in North America. The UBC library system is also one of the largest research libraries in Canada, with over 10 million volumes. In addition to strong academics, UBC is also strong in sports, with 65 Olympic medallists among its alumni.
4. University of Alberta
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Global university rank: 110th
The University of Alberta in Edmonton is the highest-ranked bilingual university in Canada, thanks to offering courses in French at the Campus Saint-Jean. The university has invested strongly in health sciences, spending $1.6 billion on constructing research facilities. UAlberta is also very international university, with it’s 40,000 students coming from 150 different countries across the world. The university’s alumni and faculty members include three Nobel Prize winners and 72 Rhodes Scholars. The university gave an honorary degree to Wayne Gretzky in 2000.
5. Université de Montréal
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Global university rank: 116th
The only French-language university on this list, the Université de Montréal was founded in 1878 and today it has about 45,000 students in the university itself, more than 65,000 of you include its two affiliate school, Polytechnic Montréal (engineering) and HEC Montréal (business). The university has produced prime ministers for both Canada and Algeria, as well as no less than 11 Premiers of Quebec. During the Second World War, the university assisted the Allied powers in the Manhattan Project.
6. McMaster University
Location: Hamilton, Ontario
Global university rank: 152nd
McMaster University was founded in 1887 and was originally housed in McMaster Hall in Toronto. With the facilities becoming overcrowded, the university moved to Hamilton in 1927. Today the university operates six faculties that specialise in the fields of business, engineering, health sciences, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. McMaster’s alumni include government and business leaders, notable academics and Rhodes Scholars. Bertram Brockhouse, a professor at McMaster, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for his development of neutron spectroscopy.
7. University of Waterloo
Location: Waterloo, Ontario
Global university rank: 154th
The second-youngest university on this list, the University of Waterloo was founded in 1959, although it can trace its origins back to 1925 and the founding of the Waterloo College. UW has about 40,000 students, about 7,000 of whom are from outside Canada. The university is heavily involved in co-operative education and runs the largest post-secondary co-op program in the world, with over 20,000 undergraduate students enrolled in the scheme.
8. University of Western Ontario
Location: London, Ontario
Global university rank: 172nd
The University of Western Ontario, also known as Western University, was founded in 1878 by an Anglican bishop. It became non-denominational in 1908 and grew rapidly after World War II. Today the university has about 40,000 students. Western is dedicated to internationalism, and since 2012 they have used the name Western University in their branding specifically to confer a more international brand identity, even though the university is still officially called the University of Western Ontario. Author Alice Munro is a Western alumnus and has won a Nobel Prize in Literature. Sir Frederick Banting, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the first use of insulin on humans used to teach there.
9. University of Ottawa
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Global university rank: 237th
The best university in the capital of Canada is also the largest English-French bilingual university in the world. Established in 1848 as a Catholic university, the University of Ottawa became secular in 1965 and has almost 50,000 students today. More than 10,000 of these students come from outside Canada, from about 150 different countries, so you’ll be studying in an international environment at uOttawa. U of O, as it’s sometimes called, takes sustainability seriously and set up an Office of Campus Sustainability already back in 2006.
10. University of Calgary
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Global university rank: 242nd
The newest university on this list, the University of Calgary was established as an independent university in 1966. UCalgary has a strong research output and it has close ties especially to the petroleum and geoscience industries. The university has alumni in over 150 countries around the world. Some of the most famous ones include James Gosling, the lead develop of the Java programming language, Garrett Camp, the co-founder of Uber and Chip Wilson, the founder of lululemon.
So there we are, the 10 best universities in Canada. Five in Ontario, two in Quebec, two in Alberta and one in British Columbia. Canada is a beautiful country with interesting cities and stunning nature, which means it’s easy to combine high-quality education with great free time activities in any of these places. If you want to study in one of these universities, get your application in and hopefully you’ll be successful!
When you get accepted, you’re going to need some accommodation. The good news is, here at Student.com we list lots of student housing options in Canada. You’ll surely find something that works for you. If you need any help with your housing search, our booking consultants are always happy to help. Just give us a call!
