Canada has a strong and well-funded system of public education; it is largely managed provincially. Therefore, some aspects of the education system can vary between provinces. As education is overseen by the federal government, the standard of education remains consistently high throughout the country.
Types of institutions
There are different types of qualifications offered by various institutions of Canada.
- University: Students can apply for undergraduate degree, postgraduate certificate, diploma and degree, professional degrees and doctorate in universities of Canada.
- University colleges: Programs offered by university colleges include diploma and university transfer programs.
- Community colleges: Students can get certificate, diploma, associate degree, undergraduate degree and postgraduate diploma in community colleges.
- Career and technical colleges: Certificate and diploma offered for technical education.
Credit System in Canada
All the Universities in Canada follow the same credit system. The credits that a student earns during the course are taken into consideration to calculate their final result.
- For an undergraduate degree/Bachelor’s degree, a student requires 3-5 credits per course. Around 90-120 credit are required to complete a Bachelor’s degree
- For a Master’s degree, it is 3-4 credits per course. Around 30 or more credits are required to complete a Master’s degree
- The Canadian education system uses the GPA or the grade point average, which is a scale from 0.0 to 4.0 to grade students. For each semester, these are calculated based on marks obtained in each course and credits earned for that semester. 4.0 represents A grade and 0.0 is equivalent to F grade.
Qualifications Offered
Below are the types of degrees offered in Canada:
| Qualification | Duration | Description |
| Certificates and diploma | 1 to 2 years | These are mainly technical programs |
| Associate degree | 2 years | Equivalent to first two years of a 4-year bachelor’s degree |
| Bachelor’s degree | 3 to 4 years | An undergraduate degree which requires successful completion of secondary school |
| Bachelor’s Honors degree | 4 years | This will require getting a specific GPA or credits, a majors or a specialist program |
| Postgraduate diploma | 1 to 2 years | A post bachelor degree qualification |
| Master’s degree | 1 to 2 years | Often referred to as research masters, this may require submission of thesis for assessment and course completion |
| Doctorate or PhD | 4 to 7 years | Ph.D. is awarded when students complete dissertation and successfully present their work before a panel of faculty members |