Public University - Canada

Canada

In Canada, education is a constitutional responsibility of the individual provinces. Many early universities were privately endowed (e.g. McGill) or founded by church denominations (e.g. Laval, Queens, Dalhousie, Mount Allison, McMaster, Ottawa) but in the 20th century became publicly funded and secular. Provincial governments established the University of Toronto on the Oxbridge model and elsewhere (Alberta, Manitoba etc.) in the pattern of American state universities. All major Canadian universities are now publicly funded but maintain institutional autonomy, with the ability to decide on admission, tuition and governance.

The U15 is an organization of the country's fifteen leading research-intensive universities. Additionally, McGill University and the University of Toronto are members of the Association of American Universities, along with sixty public and private institutions in the United States. Private universities in Canada are relatively new and mostly exist at the undergraduate level.