Canadian colleges recorded their largest increase in total revenue (+11.5%) and expenditure (+12.3%) in more than two decades in 2023/2024. Total revenues reached $18.5 billion, while expenditures totalled $17.9 billion.
Nearly four-fifths (77.0%) of the annual increase in college revenues came from student fees ($1.5 billion), followed by investment income (9.7%), provincial funding (7.0%) and other revenue sources (6.3%).
The $2.0 billion increase in college expenditures was largely driven by higher salaries and benefits (45.5%), followed by spending on fees and contracted services (31.4%), operational supplies (5.1%), and expenditure items (18.0%) such as utilities and furniture and equipment.
All figures are expressed in 2024 constant dollars to remove the effects of inflation and allow for consistent comparisons over time.
