On Campus

Canada’s big universities ranked by endowment

How much money has your school saved?

McGill student courtesy of Evan Shay on Flickr

McGill student courtesy of Evan Shay on Flickr

Schools use their endowments to build things, for research, to fund bursaries — in short, the more money a school has saved up, the more it can spend on its current students. The size of an endowment reflects the age of the school: older ones have had more time to woo donations. But age aside, they reflect how much students care about their alma mater, because that’s where most of the money comes from. Here are Canada’s 20 biggest schools, ranked by endowment per student.
1. McGill
$808-million (March 2010) pop. 27,971
Per student: $28,869
2. Queen’s
$528-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 18,733
Per student: $28,189
3. British Columbia
$1,008-million (Dec. 2010) pop. 38,052
Per student: $26,490
4. Toronto (not including colleges’ endowments)
$1,757-million (Dec. 2010)  pop. 68,585
Per student: $25,617
5. Alberta
$718-million (March 2010) pop. 34,240
Per student: $20,969
6. McMaster
$461-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 23,312
Per student: $19,775
7. Calgary
$441-million (March 2010) pop. 26,297
Per student: $16,769
8. Manitoba
$301-million (March. 2010) pop.21,724
Per student: $13,855
9. Carleton
$215-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 19,874
Per student: $10,818
10. Guelph
$189-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 22,045
Per student: $8,573
11. York
$294-million (Dec. 2010) pop. 43.693
Per student: $6,728
12. Waterloo
$191-million, (Apr. 2010) pop. 28,837
Per student: $6,623
13. Ottawa
$165-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 30,826
Per student: $5,352
14. Concordia
$111-million (May 2010)  pop. 21,885
Per student: $5,071
15. Western
$153-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 31,126
Per student: $4,915
16. Ryerson
$86-million (Apr. 2010) pop. 19,681
Per student: $4,369
17. Montreal
$128-million (June 2009) pop. 41,194
Per student: $3,107
Information for Laval, Athabasca and UQAM was not available.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
FILED UNDER: