Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC)

Detailed information for 2025/2026

The Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC) survey is a national survey that enables Statistics Canada to provide detailed information on tuition fees, additional compulsory fees, and living accommodation costs for full-time students for all publicly funded universities and degree-granting colleges in Canada.

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The TLAC survey collects data for full-time students at all publicly funded universities and degree-granting colleges in Canada. This annual survey was developed to provide information on average tuition fees, additional compulsory fees, and living accommodation costs for an academic year for full-time students. Weighted averages are produced for tuition fees and additional compulsory fees at the national and provincial/territorial levels by level of study (undergraduate and graduate), and also by field of study for tuition for Canadian and International students.

Data is collected for the previous and current academic year. The previous academic year data are revised and finalized; the current academic year data are preliminary and will be revised and finalized in the next collection cycle.

Reference period: Academic year (September 1 to April 30)

Collection period: Early April to early June

Subjects

• Education finance
• Education, training and learning
• Fields of study

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population is all public degree-granting institutions (universities and some colleges) in Canada that offer full-time programs leading to degrees as defined by the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC). These are: Bachelor's degrees, Applied (Bachelor's) degrees, Applied Master's degrees, Master's degrees, and Doctoral degrees. Associate degrees, which are only offered in British Columbia, are excluded. The collection is at the institution level and each institution reports data on the basis of field of study and the related program.

Instrument design

The TLAC survey has been collecting data since 1947, initially covering five fields of study. Over time, additional fields were introduced to reflect the evolving landscape of postsecondary education. Before the adoption of the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes, the survey used the Major Fields of Study (MFS) classification. Developed jointly by Statistics Canada and the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, the CIP was mapped to TLAC fields of study starting in 2007/2008. The most recent revision of the CIP, completed in 2021, will be applied to the release of the 2025/2026 TLAC data.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

No sampling is done.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2025-03-31 to 2025-05-30

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The initial contact consists of a written request via e-mail. Follow-up contact may be made via telephone or e-mail.

As of 2011/2012, all universities and degree-granting colleges began reporting their fees using an Excel file distributed through Electronic File Transfer (EFT). Formerly, a paper questionnaire was used for data collection.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .