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)
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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.
 University | Per cent |
|---|---|
| McGill | 94.3 |
| Queen's | 94.0 |
| Calgary | 93.6 |
| Waterloo | 93.2 |
| Western | 93.0 |
| Guelph | 92.9 |
| UBC | 92.5 |
| Alberta | 92.4 |
| Laval | 92.3 |
| Sherbrooke | 92.2 |
| McMaster | 92.1 |
| Toronto | 91.1 |
| Carleton | 90.0 |
| Toronto Metropolitan | 89.2 |
| Ottawa | 88.6 |
| Brock | 88.1 |
| Concordia | 87.4 |
| Manitoba | 87.4 |
| Dalhousie | 87.3 |
| Montréal | 87.1 |
| Wilfrid Laurier | 87.1 |
| Simon Fraser | 87.0 |
| Victoria | 86.5 |
| York | 85.8 |
| St. Francis Xavier | 85.7 |
| Mount Allison | 84.8 |
| Windsor | 84.7 |
| UQAM | 84.1 |
| Saskatchewan | 83.8 |
| UPEI | 83.3 |
| Ontario Tech | 83.1 |
| Saint Mary's | 83.1 |
| Bishop's | 82.4 |
| Acadia | 81.8 |
| New Brunswick | 81.2 |
| Trent | 81.0 |
| Lakehead | 80.8 |
| Moncton | 80.6 |
| Cape Breton | 80.5 |
| UNBC | 79.9 |
| Regina | 79.5 |
| Nipissing | 79.3 |
| Mount Saint Vincent | 79.0 |
| Memorial | 77.6 |
| St. Thomas | 75.3 |
| Lethbridge | 74.9 |
| Winnipeg | 73.9 |
| Brandon | 71.7 |
| Laurentian | 71.4 |
More on Canada’s best universities:
Average entering grade
Grade distribution
Proportion who graduate
Average class size
Faculty with highest degree in their field