Updated at: 03-03-2023 - By: Eden Wise

Overview

It’s no secret that Canada is home to some of the best educational institutions in the world. As a matter of fact, 31 Canadian universities are ranked among the best in the world by Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2023.

Canada is a fantastic destination for international students, as it is home to seven universities that are ranked among the world’s 200 best.

Canada offers a number of advantages for international students over the United States, including lower tuition costs, less cumbersome application procedures, and more options for permanent residency after graduation.

The University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia are two of the best universities in Canada, and they excel in research impact. This indicates that their research is of high quality and is widely cited.

Since many Canadian universities are well-known for fostering a global perspective through the recruitment of international students and staff and the encouragement of international collaborations, any university in Canada is likely to have a sizable population of international students and faculty.

Top Canadian Universities

Top canadian universities

University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto was established in 1827 as a public research university. In the neighborhood of eighty percent of its students are undergrads. St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough are the three locations of the university outside of Toronto. Upwards of sixty percent of the university’s undergraduates and ninety-five percent of its graduate students attend classes at the St. George campus in the city center. The University of Toronto attracts thousands of international students annually from over 160 different countries and regions. Chinese, Indian, and American students were the most numerous among international students at a Canadian university in a recent year. Foreign students have to pay higher tuition rates.

The university has departments teaching subjects as diverse as public health, management, and applied science and engineering. Approximately 700 majors for undergrads and over 200 for grads are available at this university. As a result, English is used as the medium of instruction. All three campuses have slightly different schedules. All first-year undergraduates are assured housing on each campus’s student housing waiting lists. There are more than forty libraries on campus, housing more than nineteen million books. Insulin, discovered by U of T scientists in the 1920s, is one of the university’s most famous discoveries. Two of these scientists, one of whom went on to win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his or her work in this area, have the university’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre named after them.

University of Alberta

Alberta’s public research university dates back to 1908. Most of the students at this university in Alberta, Western Canada, are in their first year of college. Edmonton is home to four of the university’s five campuses, the largest of which is the North Campus, which takes up about 50 blocks of the city. The Augustana Campus is about an hour’s drive from Edmonton, in the small town of Camrose, the university’s fifth location. The smaller Augustana Campus caters to liberal arts and sciences students and has around a thousand enrolled students.

Arts, business, engineering, and medical programs are just some of those available at this comprehensive university. Except for the Campus Saint-Jean, where French is the primary language, all classes are taught in English. A significant percentage of the student body at the University of Alberta comes from outside of Canada and the United States, making up over 20%. The academic year consists of two mandatory semesters (fall and winter) and two shorter (spring and summer) terms. Edmonton and the Augustana campus both have university housing options for both undergraduate and graduate students. The National Institute for Nanotechnology is one of many prestigious research facilities with which the University of Alberta is associated. University of Western Australia and the University of Munich in Germany are just two of the more than 400 institutions with which the university has formalized cooperative research and educational ties.

Universite de Montreal

Established in 1878, the University of Montreal is a public research university. When it first opened in the early 1900s, it was a satellite campus of Université Laval de Québec. They have ties to Polytechnique Montréal (an engineering school) and HEC Montréal (a business school). The main campus and its associated schools are in Montreal, Quebec, one of the most populous cities in all of Canada. About a quarter of the total student body at all three schools is enrolled in graduate programs. Graduate and undergraduate students who are enrolled full-time at the university can live on campus.

UdeM, as it is colloquially known, is home to more than a dozen departments that cover every area of study from the hard sciences to the arts and humanities. Although French is the language of instruction at all levels, English-speaking students can enroll in a number of graduate programs, including doctoral programs in biochemistry, neuroscience, and pharmacology. A variety of options, including workshops, tutorials, and more, are available to help students hone their French language skills. International students pay more in tuition and must adhere to the university’s semester-based academic calendar. Among the many research centers at the university are the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, the Cyberjustice Laboratory, and the International Centre for Comparative Criminology. Some researchers at the University of Montreal have international partnerships with universities in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

University of Waterloo

University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo has moved up the global rankings this year by seven spots, and it has maintained its seventh place in Canada. In 2021, the University of Waterloo is ranked 85th in the world in terms of employer reputation, contributing to its overall global ranking of joint 166th.

The university was founded in 1956 and is distinguished by its membership in the U15 research group and its three distinct campuses.

University of British Columbia

Moving on to the top 3, the University of British Columbia has risen six spots this year to take the 45th spot in the world and the third spot in Canada. The University of British Columbia, which is committed to innovation and strives to challenge the status quo, ranks 28th in the world in terms of the academic reputation indicator.

Queen’s University

Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, drops seven spots to joint 246th in the world this year, but still ranks ninth in Canada. The university ranks 99th in the world in terms of its reputation among employers.

Queen’s University, which has more than 24,000 students, has a graduate employment rate of 91% within six months of graduation.

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario is home to McMaster University. More than 90 different countries are represented among the students and faculty.

William McMaster, a prominent Canadian senator and banker, donated C$900,000 to establish the university, hence the name.

Although McMaster is best known for its prestigious medical school, it also boasts highly regarded schools of engineering, business, the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. University resources are heavily invested in studies that address critical societal issues, especially in the health sciences.

Nearly seventy international exchange pacts have been signed by the university.

McGill University

McGill University

Around 150 different countries are represented among McGill’s student body.

The school’s doors first opened to students in 1821.

Mount Royal serves as the backdrop for the main campus, which is located in the heart of Montreal. Freshmen are given the option of living on the beautiful campus.

The first medical school in the country was established at McGill in 1829, and the institution continues to rank highly in international comparisons of educational quality for clinical disciplines.

Over 31,000 students, including both undergraduates and graduates, are enrolled at the university, and they have their pick of more than 300 degree programs.

Student services include the Academic Advising Service, the Office for Students with Disabilities, and the Career Planning Service.

Famous artists like Leonard Cohen and William Shatner both attended McGill. More students from Canada attend this university than any other, and more than a few of them go on to win the Rhodes Scholarship.

University of Ottawa  

Ottawa, Canada’s capital, is an excellent location for academic pursuits. The University of Ottawa, located on the international boundary between Ontario and Quebec, is the largest bilingual university in the world. The institution, which has been around since 1848, now features over 450 shows in both French and English.

The University of Ottawa is located in a historic area near the Rideau Canal and was recently ranked sixth in Canada for sustainability in the 2020 UI Greenmetric World University Rankings.

The university has recently built five brand new cutting-edge facilities and research labs, including a black box theater and a cutting-edge STEM complex.

Dalhousie University   

Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia is a research-focused institution. It’s been around since 1818 and now boasts a graduate and undergraduate curriculum of more than 190 options. Dalhousie University, like a few others on our list, is a member of the U15, a consortium of Canada’s 15 top research universities. Almost twenty percent of the student body comes from other countries.

Dalhousie University has four campuses: three in Halifax and one in Truro, a town about two hours away. More than that, the province of Nova Scotia is a great place for international students to settle down. As a maritime hub in the Atlantic, it offers students stunning ocean views, a thriving nightlife, excellent live music, and a warm and welcoming community. It’s true that in 2021, Halifax will be the best city in Canada for telecommuters to call home, as declared by Maclean’s.

University of Manitoba  

The city of Winnipeg, in the very heart of Canada, is home to the University of Manitoba. The university has been open since 1877, making it the oldest in Western Canada. The university boasts over a hundred different majors, and over twenty percent of its student body comes from outside the United States. Furthermore, the percentage of Indigenous students at the University of Manitoba is much higher than the national average.

The main campus, covering 60 structures and 692 acres, is the largest of the university’s two campuses, while the second, in the heart of Winnipeg, is home to a top-notch health sciences facility. The Smartpark Research and Technology Park is located here as well; this is a thriving center of innovation housing ten separate buildings and twenty different businesses involved in fields such as information and communications technology, engineering, and health and biotechnology.

York University  

York University  

York University, which was established in 1959, is the third-largest school in all of Canada. Situated in Toronto, a fantastic city for students, it features eleven different schools. York is highly regarded for its academic prowess in a variety of disciplines. In 2020, the Financial Times ranked its executive master of business administration (EMBA) program as the best in Canada and the 21st in the world.

In addition to its main campus in Toronto, York University also maintains a smaller, bilingual campus in the area. It also has a Las Nubes EcoCampus on 414 acres of protected land in Costa Rica and a Hyberbad campus where students can split their two-year master of business administration (MBA) course between Canada and India.

FAQs

How to get admission in top universities in Canada? 

If you want to study in Canada but aren’t sure if you meet the prerequisites for the program you want to enroll in, you should visit the university’s website. Be prepared to submit an application fee and supporting documents via an online form. Assuming the university accepts your application to enroll, you will be extended an invitation to begin classes. If you want to get into a good university, you should get good grades on the entrance exams and make sure you meet all the requirements the school has set forth.

Which are the best universities for Engineering courses in Canada?

Some of the best universities in Canada to take an engineering course are McGill, Toronto, and Waterloo.

Conclusion

You now have a thorough understanding of the best Canadian universities thanks to the data provided by this blog. You can now research the availability of your preferred major and concentration at the institutions we’ve highlighted above. Contact us at any time if you have questions about which Canadian college would provide you with the finest education possible in your chosen field.