Canada makes a large investment in its education system. In fact, Canada is one of the world’s top education performers and among the top three countries in spending per capita on public post-secondary education, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

There are a number of organizations in Canada that promote quality and the use of high academic standards in post-secondary programs such as the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) and the Association of Accrediting Agencies of Canada (AAAC). Higher education degrees from Canada are accepted and respected worldwide.

Canada is a federation of ten provinces and three territories. Under the Canadian constitution, provincial governments have exclusive responsibility of all levels of education. There is no ministry or department of education at the federal level.

Canada’s three territories, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, do not have the same constitutional status as the provinces, but with respect to education, the federal government has delegated this responsibility to the territorial governments, which, in turn, cooperate with the provinces to deliver post secondary programs.

At the post-secondary level, Canada offers a range of education institutions:
• University
• University Colleges
• Community Colleges
• Career Colleges or Technical Institutes

Canada also has the highest ranking cities in North America for living according to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2007. This ranking is based on two important criteria of safety and stability. Five Canadian cities ranked within the Top 25 cities in North America include Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary.

The tertiary education system in Canada is divided into:
• Certificate level, generally for a year
• Diploma level, for one or two years
• Advanced Diploma, generally two or three-year programs
• Bachelor degrees, awarded after four years of full-time study
• Post-graduate Diplomas/Certificates, for one or two years of study
• Master’s degrees, available after a bachelor degree to excel in a certain subject, for one to two years
• Doctorate or PhD, generally four to seven years