University Rankings
by Maclean's
October 7, 2022

Canada's Best Universities 2023: Student Retention

Maclean's tracks how many first-year students return to a university in the second year

(Photo courtesy of Martin Dee, University of British Columbia)

These numbers show the percentage of full-time, first-year students enrolled in the fall of 2020 who returned to the university the following year. Many factors can affect a student's choice not to return, but on the whole, retention reflects a university's success in keeping its students on track.

UniversityPer cent
Laurentian71.4
Brandon71.7
Winnipeg73.9
Lethbridge74.9
St. Thomas75.3
Memorial77.6
Mount Saint Vincent79.0
Nipissing79.3
Regina79.5
UNBC79.9
Cape Breton80.5
Moncton80.6
Lakehead80.8
Trent81.0
New Brunswick81.2
Acadia81.8
Bishop's82.4
Ontario Tech83.1
Saint Mary's83.1
UPEI83.3
Saskatchewan83.8
UQAM84.1
Windsor84.7
Mount Allison84.8
St. Francis Xavier85.7
York85.8
Victoria86.5
Simon Fraser87.0
Montréal87.1
Wilfrid Laurier87.1
Dalhousie87.3
Concordia87.4
Manitoba87.4
Brock88.1
Ottawa88.6
Toronto Metropolitan89.2
Carleton90.0
Toronto91.1
McMaster92.1
Sherbrooke92.2
Laval92.3
Alberta92.4
UBC 92.5
Guelph92.9
Western93.0
Waterloo93.2
Calgary93.6
Queen's94.0
McGill94.3