It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single student in possession of a modest fortune pursues studies at college, not university. If it is so, it is because of another truth universally acknowledged: that college is cheaper than university.

Or is it?

While Statistics Canada does a bang-up job collecting university tuition and fee data, weighting them carefully by enrolment patterns and reporting averages by province, level and discipline, no such mechanism exists for college studies.

In fairness, the B.C. government has gathered data on “base” tuition levels by province for years. Like university tuition, college tuition varies considerably from province to province. Moreover, there is considerably variation in college tuition across programs within provinces – arguably much more so than in university. The “base” costs covered by the B.C. survey are increasingly irrelevant as colleges find ways to offer niche programming and charge accordingly. We recently embarked on a project to create a college tuition fee index that would mirror Statistics Canada’s tuition survey by combining data on program costs and enrolments to create a weighted average tuition fee for colleges. As Figure 1 demonstrates, the weighted tuition is considerably higher than the base tuition. The differences are over and above the effect of including ancillary fees.

Figure 1: Base Weighted Average College Tuition by Province, 2010-11

Note: Weighted tuition numbers include ancillary fees.
Source: Government of British Columbia (base tuition); Higher Education Strategy Associates, various provincial and institutional sources (weighted tuition).

So how does the weighted cost of college compare to the weighted cost of university? As Figure 2 demonstrates, the gap is smaller than expected. In Saskatchewan, the weighted college tuition is almost as high as the university equivalent; it’s more than 85% of the university total in P.E.I. and B.C., and it’s more than 75% of the amount of undergraduate tuition and fees in Manitoba and Newfoundland (provinces that have, it should be noted, relatively low university tuition).

Figure 2: College and University Tuition and Fees, by Province, 2010-11

Source: Higher Education Strategy Associates, various provincial and institutional sources; Statistics Canada’s Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs Survey.

On the whole, college is cheaper than university, if only because college programs tend to be significantly shorter than those at university. On the flipside, college graduate earnings are substantially lower than those of university grads. Is Canadian college still a bargain? Sometimes, but not always.