Education

Canada's Best Universities 2023: Average Class Size

Maclean's tracks undergraduate class sizes, which can vary significantly and impact students' learning experience

These average class size figures are for undergraduate classes in the fall of 2019. Maclean’s did not ask universities to report class sizes during the COVID-19 pandemic because the shift to online learning and capacity restrictions disrupted the normal delivery of classes. These numbers reflect primary classes; subsections such as labs, tutorials and practicums are not included.*

First and Second Year

UniversityUniversity Avg. Size
Moncton 23.8
St. Thomas 28.6
Mount Saint Vincent 29.2
Sherbrooke 31.7
Brandon 32.8
Lakehead 34.5
Laurentian 34.9
Nipissing 35.6
Cape Breton 38.0
Winnipeg 38.4
Acadia 38.7
New Brunswick 39.1
St. Francis Xavier 39.4
UQAM 39.7
Bishop's 40.0
Regina 40.0
Laval 40.1
UPEI 40.9
UNBC 41.1
Mount Allison 44.3
Memorial 44.8
Lethbridge 46.1
Saint Mary's 49.8
Concordia 57.4
Alberta 59.4
Saskatchewan 62.5
Victoria 65.0
McGill 65.5
Manitoba 69.7
Windsor 71.0
Dalhousie 73.5
Trent 79.3
Simon Fraser 82.2
Queen's 84.9
Calgary 86.8
UBC 86.9
York 90.6
Carleton 91.8
Brock 93.8
Wilfrid Laurier 93.8
Western 105.3
McMaster 127.8

Third and Fourth Year

UniversityUniversity Avg. Size
Mount Allison 11.4
Moncton 13.6
Brandon 14.5
Acadia 17.0
Mount Saint Vincent 17.4
St. Thomas 17.4
Laurentian 18.0
UPEI 18.2
Winnipeg 19.2
UNBC 19.3
Queen's 19.8
Bishop's 20.3
Nipissing 21.0
Regina 22.0
New Brunswick 22.2
St. Francis Xavier 22.2
Memorial 23.0
Lethbridge 23.3
Lakehead 24.4
Alberta 25.5
Trent 25.7
Saint Mary's 26.1
Victoria 27.2
Laval 27.4
Manitoba 28.6
Dalhousie 29.2
McGill 29.4
Saskatchewan 30.9
York 31.3
Sherbrooke 31.5
Cape Breton 32.3
UQAM 32.5
Calgary 32.9
Brock 33.1
Windsor 33.7
Concordia 34.6
Western 35.3
Wilfrid Laurier 38.3
Simon Fraser 38.9
Carleton 41.2
McMaster 52.3
UBC 54.4

*Seven universities did not provide figures for fall 2019: Guelph, Montréal, Ontario Tech, Ottawa, Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan and Waterloo.

More on Canada’s best universities:

Average entering grade
Grade distribution
Student retention
Proportion who graduate
Faculty with highest degree in their field

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