Postsecondary Overview

Ontario offers a wide range of postsecondary options for those wanting to study in this province. There are 19 universities, twenty-four colleges of applied arts and technology, agricultural colleges, colleges of health sciences and of art, a military college, privately funded degree-granting institutions, registered private career colleges, and many other options as well.

Program Offerings

For details on programs offered by the province's universities and colleges of applied arts and technology, you should visit their individual websites. You'll also want to visit the Ontario Universities' Application Centre or the Ontario College Application Services for more information on study options and how to apply. The map of Ontario colleges and the map of Ontario universities show the locations of the institutions.

Many colleges and universities offer distance education courses that students can complete at home for credits. For more information on university courses, visit Distance Education Opportunities at Ontario Universities, a searchable database of over 2,800 distance education credit courses that's maintained by the Network for Ontario Distance Educators.

Information on Program Outcomes

The Ministry, in cooperation with the province's colleges and universities, have measured the employment, graduation and OSAP-student loan default rates for all college and undergraduate university programs. The Ministry also worked with private career colleges in Ontario to collect this information. For all Ontario universities and colleges, you can find this information through the links to universities' performance indicators and colleges' performance indicators.

For private career colleges, this information can be found on private career colleges' performance indicator web pages.

You may also find a program by program snapshot of the employment experience of Ontario's college graduates six months after graduation in the college Employment Profile.

Financial Assistance

Students taking approved programs at colleges, universities, and private colleges may qualify for financial assistance from the Ontario government – either loans that students pay back at the end of their studies, or non-repayable grants, scholarships or bursaries. Visit the website of the Ontario Student Assistance Program for information on loans and bursaries, to apply online, to see if an institution is approved for OSAP, or to check the status of your OSAP application.