Skip to content | Skip to institutional links

Common menu bar links

Institutional links

The Daily

Special interest

Releases

Page content follows

University degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded

Warning View the most recent version.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

Related subjects

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

2008 (Previous release)

In 2008, 244,380 students received a degree, a diploma or a certificate from a Canadian university, up 0.7% from 2007. The increase was entirely due to the attribution of university status to five colleges in British Columbia. If there had been no changes in the number of universities surveyed between 2007 and 2008, the number of graduates would have decreased by 2.5%.

In 2008, 60% of qualifications, or 146,721, were awarded to women. Women were awarded 56.4% of the qualifications in 1992.

At the undergraduate level, 191,340 students received a degree, a certificate or a diploma in 2008, down 2.4% from 2007.

In 2008, 36,423 students received a master's level qualification, up 4.2% from 2007. Of these, 16,536 were men, up 2.5% from 2007, while 19,881 were women, a 5.6% increase.

Universities granted 5,421 doctorate degrees in 2008, the highest number recorded since 1992. Women accounted for 44.2% of these doctorates, up from 36.1% a decade earlier.

The five fields of study with the largest numbers of qualifications awarded accounted for nearly three-quarters of all graduates. These are: social and behavioural sciences, and law; business, management and public administration; education; health, parks, recreation and fitness; and humanities.

Among these, the largest increase in graduates occurred in business, management and public administration (+2.3%) and health, parks, recreation and fitness (+2.2%).

Note: Graduate counts for certain universities are preliminary or based on estimates. Data for the University of Regina are missing since 2005 but this has no significant impact on the trend analysis at the national level presented here. For Quebec institutions, micro programs and attestations are not included. Data are subject to revision.

Available on CANSIM: table 477-0014.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5017.

Data tables are also available from the Summary tables module of our website.

For more information, to order data, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-7608; fax: 613-951-4441; educationstats@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division.

Table 1

University qualifications awarded by program level and gender

Table 1

University qualifications awarded by program level and gender
	2005^r	2006^r	2007^r	2008	2007 to 2008
	number				% change
Total^1,2	216,240	227,085	242,787	244,380	0.7
Male	86,970	90,102	95,367	97,620	2.4
Female	129,255	136,941	147,381	146,721	-0.4
Undergraduate level¹	173,541	182,478	196,125	191,340	-2.4
Male	66,279	68,985	73,812	73,557	-0.3
Female	107,250	113,460	122,280	117,765	-3.7
Bachelor's, first professional and applied degree¹	152,028	161,766	176,025	171,882	-2.4
Male	58,644	61,809	66,900	66,819	-0.1
Female	93,372	99,933	109,095	105,048	-3.7
Other undergraduate qualifications awarded¹	21,516	20,715	20,100	19,455	-3.2
Male	7,635	7,176	6,915	6,735	-2.6
Female	13,878	13,527	13,188	12,717	-3.6
Graduate level¹	41,445	42,777	44,823	46,794	4.4
Male	20,109	20,322	20,814	21,582	3.7
Female	21,336	22,449	24,003	25,206	5.0
Master's degree¹	33,012	34,152	34,971	36,423	4.2
Male	15,936	16,068	16,140	16,536	2.5
Female	17,079	18,081	18,828	19,881	5.6
Earned doctorate	4,191	4,446	5,010	5,421	8.2
Male	2,349	2,517	2,772	3,027	9.2
Female	1,842	1,926	2,238	2,397	7.1
Other graduate qualifications awarded¹	4,239	4,179	4,842	4,950	2.2
Male	1,824	1,737	1,905	2,019	6.0
Female	2,415	2,442	2,940	2,928	-0.4

revised

Includes sex unknown.

Includes the other types of programs offered in universities.

Note(s):

Qualifications awarded figures may not add up because of rounding to a multiple of 3. Qualifications awarded figures do not include the University of Regina.

Table 2

University qualifications awarded by field of study and gender

Table 2

University qualifications awarded by field of study and gender
	2005^r	2006^r	2007^r	2008	2007 to 2008
	number				% change
Total¹	216,240	227,085	242,787	244,380	0.7
Male	86,970	90,102	95,367	97,620	2.4
Female	129,255	136,941	147,381	146,721	-0.4
Personal improvement and leisure	33	45	48	549	1,043.8
Male	12	24	21	234	1,014.3
Female	18	24	27	312	1,055.6
Education¹	25,929	27,027	27,606	27,723	0.4
Male	6,432	6,486	6,525	6,633	1.7
Female	19,494	20,520	21,075	21,090	0.1
Visual and performing arts, and communications technologies¹	7,917	8,298	8,826	9,348	5.9
Male	2,577	2,625	2,886	3,135	8.6
Female	5,340	5,667	5,934	6,213	4.7
Humanities¹	24,303	25,479	27,381	26,199	-4.3
Male	8,631	8,910	9,678	9,342	-3.5
Female	15,675	16,566	17,700	16,854	-4.8
Social and behavioural sciences, and law¹	42,087	45,714	50,730	50,169	-1.1
Male	14,142	15,252	16,464	16,563	0.6
Female	27,942	30,462	34,266	33,600	-1.9
Business, management and public administration¹	45,369	45,897	48,822	49,968	2.3
Male	20,709	20,961	22,950	23,448	2.2
Female	24,654	24,927	25,854	26,499	2.5
Physical and life sciences, and technologies¹	15,675	17,055	18,915	18,627	-1.5
Male	6,558	7,071	7,707	7,944	3.1
Female	9,117	9,981	11,205	10,680	-4.7
Mathematics, computer and information sciences¹	10,041	9,474	8,616	8,214	-4.7
Male	7,107	6,633	6,042	5,715	-5.4
Female	2,934	2,841	2,574	2,496	-3.0
Architecture, engineering and related technologies¹	17,976	18,579	19,527	20,142	3.1
Male	13,599	14,310	14,871	15,660	5.3
Female	4,377	4,266	4,659	4,479	-3.9
Agriculture, natural resources and conservation¹	3,369	3,693	3,954	4,059	2.7
Male	1,563	1,623	1,692	1,788	5.7
Female	1,809	2,070	2,262	2,271	0.4
Health, parks, recreation and fitness¹	21,876	23,916	26,253	26,841	2.2
Male	5,046	5,478	5,784	6,168	6.6
Female	16,830	18,432	20,463	20,673	1.0
Personal, protective and transportation services¹	327	474	492	882	79.3
Male	192	282	264	480	81.8
Female	138	192	228	396	73.7
Other¹	1,341	1,437	1,620	1,659	2.4
Male	405	444	483	507	5.0
Female	933	990	1,134	1,152	1.6

revised

Includes sex unknown.

Note(s):

Qualifications awarded figures may not add up because of rounding to a multiple of 3. Qualifications awarded figures do not include the University of Regina.