Higher Education Trends
By CBoC Education & Skills Team • Updated November 26, 2025
The Compass for Post-secondary Institutions in Canada
Higher Education Trends (HET) provides post-secondary institution (PSI) leaders with valuable data and insights into trends in higher education. It includes national student statistics in four pivotal areas that will help leaders gauge program success and evaluate their institution’s societal and economic value.
Topics covered by HET
Each quarterly publication will focus on one of the following four areas of higher education:
Enrolment outlook
- enrolment trends by institution type, credentials, province, field of study, student demographics, status of students
- enrolment projections by province
Student outcomes
- persistence rate and graduation rate by institution type, credentials, province, field of study, student demographics, status of students in Canada
- employment status and median earnings after one and five years after graduation by institution type, credentials, province, field of study, student demographics, status in Canada
Student mobility
- interprovincial and international student mobility in post-secondary education (PSE) enrolment
- interprovincial and international student mobility one and five years after graduation
Student finance
- student tuition, loans, and aid by type of credentials, field of study, and province
Releases
Student Mobility
November 26, 2025
When Canadian students cross provincial borders to study, most will not stay in their province of training once their degrees are in hand. Across Canada, local students—those who study in the same province they reside in at time of admission—are far more likely to remain after graduation than those who arrived from elsewhere.
Online experience • 11-min read
Forthcoming
Student Finance
August 20, 2025
Tuition fees have been a growing share of institutional revenues over the past decade. Fees accounted for 38 per cent of college revenues and 31 per cent of university revenues in the 2022–23 academic year, up from 23 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, in the 2012–13 academic year.
Online experience • 13-min read
Forthcoming
Student Outcomes
May 27, 2025
While these decreases are small, they break from the pattern of sustained growth in graduation observed throughout the late 2010s. Slower population growth and evolving policies may lead to future declines in graduation.
Online experience • 9-min read
Forthcoming
Enrolment Outlook
March 3, 2025
After steep pandemic-related enrolment declines from 2019–20 to 2020–21—including a 5.0 per cent drop in college enrolments—the Canadian PSE sector has rebounded, reaching a total of 2.21 million students in 2022–23. However, we expect enrolment declines and a challenging road ahead.
Online experience • 9-min read
Forthcoming
Student Mobility
January 27, 2025
Canada continued to witness robust growth in international student enrolments in the 2022/2023 academic year, with 468,000 international students enrolled in Canadian post-secondary education (PSE). This marked a 16.0 per cent increase from the previous year and represents more than a decade of consistent expansion, with international enrolments rising by nearly 170.0 per cent over the past ten years.
Online experience • 15-min read
Forthcoming
Student Finance
November 28, 2024
Tuition fees for domestic undergraduate students have increased by 20 per cent since 2013–14, which is below the rate of inflation over this period. This is partly due to provincial tuition freezes. In contrast, tuition fees have doubled for international students (and nearly tripled since the mid-2000s). At the graduate level, tuition fees for international students have also considerably risen.
Online experience • 10-min read
Forthcoming
Authors
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