Higher Education Structure in Ontario

Ontario has a binary public post-secondary education structure consisting of parallel college and university systems. The public college system comprises 21 colleges of applied arts and technology and three institutes of technology and advanced learning. The public university system comprises twenty-two universities. Some universities have federated and/or affiliated colleges which are considered part of the public university system. In addition, there are seventeen private religious universities and over 500 private career colleges that are not classified as universities. Ontario's private career colleges provide specific skills training for employment and must be registered with the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development. A program run by ServiceOntario enables students to search for career colleges providing vocational training in their field of interest.