Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC)

Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs (TLAC)
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Detailed information for 2025/2026

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Annual

Record number:

3123

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.

Data release - September 10, 2025

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) .

Error detection

A statistical analysis program is run on the completed file, comparing each institution's data to the previous year's results. Any significant changes are investigated with the respondents. Error detection is done at the macro and micro level and includes identifying missing, invalid or inconsistent entries, and reporting errors.

Imputation

This is a mandatory survey which consistently achieves a response rate close to 100%. If an institution is unable to provide data, its information is imputed using historical records, applicable provincial or territorial tuition fee regulations, and other publicly available sources.

Estimation

Each institution reports a lower and upper tuition fee for each field of study, representing the minimum and maximum tuition costs across all programs within that field of study. In some cases, these values are the same.

A single tuition value for each field of study for each institution is generally determined by averaging the lower and upper fees. This method applies to Canadian students in most provinces and territories, as well as to all international students. However, in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Newfoundland, the lower fee is used for in-province students, while the upper fee is used for out-of-province students.

Institution tuition fees for each field of study are aggregated to produce weighted averages at the national and provincial/territorial levels, using the most recently published enrolment counts from the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) as weights. The weighted average tuition fees are then published for public use.

Quality evaluation

Each year a data comparison is done (percentage increases for major cells) for each university and college. Any major discrepancies are investigated with the respondent.
The aggregated data are sent to the provincial/territorial ministries of education prior to release for final validation.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Institution-level data are available for purchase upon request.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Data are revised annually. For each survey cycle, data are collected for both the previous and current academic years. Data for the previous academic year are thus revised and finalized, while data for the current academic year are preliminary and will be revised and finalized during the collection of the following cycle.

Data accuracy

Any survey is likely to contain errors. In the present survey, only non-sampling errors apply, since it is a census. Although the FSS universe may change from year to year, every effort is made to avoid coverage errors. As this is a mandatory survey, non-response is minimal.

Considerable effort is made to ensure that educational establishments prepare data in accordance with the Respondent's Guide, in order to ensure the comparability of aggregate data, as well as the consistency and comparability over time of data reported by establishments. This is achieved through close communication with respondents, and is an important factor in minimizing non-response. However, significant differences between the activities or policies of educational establishments, or between the ways in which they interpret and implement the Respondents' Guide, can affect the comparability of information over time and between establishments.

Documentation

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