Education

What Canadian university students can expect to pay for books

The cost of university adds up quickly, and books are major expenditure each year. Here, we rank most expensive schools and programs for books.

most expensive books

A must-have for university and college programs, books come with a pretty hefty price tags. We’ve ranked the most expensive schools and programs for the cost of books.

Most expensive schools for books 


School Average spent on books
Brandon University $920.64
St. Francis Xavier University $917.24
University of Lethbridge $915.67
Wilfrid Laurier University $909.85
Lakehead University $905.06
Laurentian University $896.59
Trent University $892.60
University of Manitoba $884.21
University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) $882.62
University of Regina $882.00
Cape Breton University $877.93
Memorial University of Newfoundland $876.11
University of Alberta $875.44
University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) $861.78
The University of Winnipeg $859.33
Brock University $852.21
Mount Saint Vincent University $845.53
Western University $833.58
Queen's University $826.84
University of Saskatchewan $819.70
Nipissing University $817.20
Mount Allison University $815.30
Thompson Rivers University $805.59
Saint Mary's University $797.94
Acadia University $787.57
University of Victoria $780.94
University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) $778.22
Ryerson University $774.11
University of Calgary $773.46
University of Windsor $769.56
York University $768.29
Dalhousie University $762.19
The University of British Columbia (UBC) $749.19
University of Guelph $733.32
University of New Brunswick $714.09
Carleton University $710.90
University of Toronto $707.22
McMaster University $682.75
St. Thomas University $676.80
Simon Fraser University $675.43
University of Ottawa $671.00
Université de Montréal $663.61
Université de Sherbrooke $654.37
Université Laval $637.39
University of Waterloo $635.06
McGill University $572.05
Bishop's University $565.48
Concordia University (Montreal) $544.58
Université de Moncton $515.34
Université de Québec a Montreal $479.70
Quest University Canada $379.12

Most expensive programs for books


Program Average book cost
Architecture $1,335.33
Design $943.04
Business $873.84
Medicine $858.80
Law $858.12
Criminology $842.76
Psychology $826.95
Art $811.48
Chemistry $805.65
Kinesiology $763.71
Political science $749.68
Neuroscience $741.43
Animal science $739.32
Sociology $738.31
Economics $737.56
History $732.30
Education $725.18
Engineering $711.88
Anthropology $709.75
Pharmacy $707.19
English $698.13
International relations $696.84
Environmental science $676.31
Music $674.79
Agriculture $660.32
Philosophy $654.77
Math $628.10
Linguistics $602.81
Computer science $576.76
Journalism $560.91

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