A recent StatCan study of Canadian college financial information found that, in 2023/24, colleges reported the largest increase in total revenue (+11.5%) and expenditure (+12.3%) in more than twenty years. The study authors noted that one of the key drivers of the revenue increase was the increase in income from fees, due to high international enrolment. StatCan’s report also said that colleges were increasingly relying on fees as a source of revenue, with the proportion rising from 32.9% of total revenue in 2020/21 to 42.1% in 2023/24. While colleges received a 2.1% increase in public funding in 2023/24—the largest in a decade—the share of public funding in total revenue dropped from 58.5% in 2020/2021 to 46.0% in 2023/24. Investment returns were also positive, increasing by 65.8% relative to the previous year.
