Algonquin College

Every one of the 91 Algonquin College programmes in this guide leads to a post-graduation work permit. We checked each one against the college’s own PGWP list, and none failed.

That sounds like the end of the story. It is not. A PGWP only lasts as long as the programme that earned it, and 36 of these 91 programmes run less than two years. Eight of them are 42 week accelerated diplomas, several recorded at more than CAD 25,000, which point to a permit of about ten months where a two year diploma could support three years.

The second trap sits outside this list. Algonquin’s full catalogue for international students includes 37 programmes that are not on its PGWP list at all: the business and accounting diplomas, marketing, public relations, animation, police foundations and project management among them. They are still open for applications, and they are still sold to Indian students as work permit routes.

Two more facts shape almost every Algonquin application in 2026 and 2027.

Algonquin does not accept PTE Academic. Its programme pages list IELTS, TOEFL, the Duolingo English Test and CAEL, and nothing else. Several widely read pages still quote a PTE score, which sends applicants to book a test the college will not use.

And the college is shrinking. Algonquin suspended 37 programmes from Fall 2025, is closing its Perth campus by August 2026, and proposed 30 further suspensions in January 2026, citing a deficit of at least CAD 60 million. Checking that your intake is actually open is no longer a formality.

What this guide covers

1. Every programme qualifies, but not for the same permit
2. The 42 week diplomas: dearest fees, shortest permits
3. The 37 programmes Algonquin offers with no work permit
4. About Algonquin College
5. A College under budget pressure
6. Algonquin College fees for international students
7. Admission requirements for Indian students
8. English requirements: no PTE, and a new TOEFL scale
9. The second language test for your PGWP
10. Health programmes and the ICHS step
11. Graduate certificates
12. Degrees and degree pathways
13. Pembroke and Perley Health
14. Regulated careers and protected titles
15. Intakes for 2027
16. Payment, refunds and the ten day rule
17. Scholarships: what is actually available
18. Cost of living in Ottawa and Pembroke
19. Rankings and reputation
20. Can you bring your family?
21. What other Algonquin pages get wrong
22. How to apply to Algonquin College
23. Is Algonquin College good for Indian students?
24. Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

1. Every Programme Qualifies, but Not for the Same Permit

Since November 2024, most college credentials below degree level only lead to a PGWP if their field of study is on IRCC’s eligible list. Algonquin publishes its own version with a code for each programme, and IRCC froze the national list for the whole of 2026.

Algonquin adds an important note: eligibility is decided when you apply for your study permit, even if the programme is later removed from the list. A student who applies while a programme is listed keeps that protection.

What differs is length. Two years of study or more can earn a permit of up to three years, while a shorter course earns a permit that roughly mirrors its own duration.

2. The 42 Week Diplomas: Dearest Fees, Shortest Permits

Algonquin runs eight Ontario College Diplomas in an accelerated 42 week format. They lead to the same credential as a two year diploma, but a 42 week programme supports a work permit of roughly ten months rather than three years.

The clearest comparison is early childhood education. The two year Ottawa diploma is recorded at CAD 17,397 a year and can support a permit of up to three years. The 42 week versions in Ottawa and Pembroke are recorded at CAD 27,484, the highest fee in this guide, for a permit of about ten months.

Accelerated formats suit students who already hold a degree and want a Canadian credential quickly. They rarely suit a student whose real goal is enough Canadian experience to apply for permanent residence.

3. The 37 Programmes Algonquin Offers With No Work Permit

These programmes appear on Algonquin’s list of programmes available to international students but do not appear on its PGWP list. None of them is among the 91 programmes profiled in this guide.

4. About Algonquin College

Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is a public Ontario college founded in 1967. Its main campus is at 1385 Woodroffe Avenue in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, and it also runs a smaller campus in Pembroke in the Ottawa Valley and delivers nursing and personal support programmes on site at Perley Health, a seniors care community in Ottawa.

It is one of Ontario’s larger colleges, with roughly 19,000 full-time students, and it is a member of Polytechnics Canada. Its Perth campus is closing by August 2026, with Practical Nursing, Heritage Carpentry and Joinery and Business - Agriculture moving to Ottawa.

5. A College Under Budget Pressure

Federal caps on study permits cut deeply into college budgets across Ontario, and Algonquin has been among the hardest hit. The college suspended 37 programmes from Fall 2025, announced the closure of its Perth campus, and projected a cash flow deficit of at least CAD 60 million for 2025/26, rising to CAD 93 million in 2026/27.

In January 2026 it proposed a further 30 suspensions from Fall 2026, including journalism, music industry arts, paralegal, law clerk and the Ottawa pre-health pathway. Students already enrolled keep the right to finish, but new applicants cannot join a suspended programme.

For an applicant, this has two practical effects. Check the live availability list rather than any brochure, because intakes are being closed and suspended term by term. And treat any programme marked waitlisted, closed or suspended as unavailable, whatever an older page says.

Four programmes that still circulate in agent listings were excluded from this guide for that reason: the three pathways into the Bachelor of Digital Marketing Communication, which do not appear on the international list for 2027, and Business Administration - Supply Chain and Operations Management, shown as closed for Fall 2027 and suspended for Spring.

6. Algonquin College Fees for International Students

Algonquin’s official estimate for 2026/27 is CAD 17,225 to 23,000 for an eight month academic year. That figure already includes full health insurance, the Ottawa transit U-Pass, recreation centre access and student fees, which makes it more complete than most colleges’ headline tuition. Books and supplies add roughly CAD 500 to 2,000 a year.

Across the programmes profiled here, recorded annual fees span CAD 15,712 to CAD 27,484, and CAD 16,165 is the figure you will meet most often, on 25 of them.

7. Admission Requirements for Indian Students

Most Algonquin programmes ask 50 percent in Class 12: 66 of the 91. The bar rises for degrees and some health programmes, with 16 asking 65 percent and 7 asking 70 percent, often with subject minimums in English, mathematics or science on top.

8. English Requirements: No PTE, and a New TOEFL Scale

Algonquin sets two English bands. 34 of the programmes in this guide use the standard band and 57 use the higher one, which covers degrees, graduate certificates, most health programmes and several community services diplomas.

Five programmes ask TOEFL 90 rather than 88: Massage Therapy, Building Automation System Operations, and the degrees in digital marketing communication, event, sport and entertainment management, and public safety.

The Duolingo Literacy requirement catches applicants out. An overall score of 120 is not enough on its own if your Literacy subscore is lower, so check the full score report, not just the headline number.

9. The Second Language Test for Your PGWP

The English score that gets you into Algonquin will not carry you through to the work permit. When you apply for a PGWP, IRCC asks for a new test result mapped to the Canadian Language Benchmarks, no more than two years old.

The bar depends on your credential. Diploma, certificate and graduate certificate holders must reach CLB 5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; graduates of the bachelor degrees must reach CLB 7. Most students sit this test during their last term in Ottawa or Pembroke, because the score they arrived with is usually out of date by graduation.

10. Health Programmes and the ICHS Step

International applicants to eleven Algonquin health programmes must first complete Introduction to Canadian Healthcare Studies (ICHS), a 14 week preparatory certificate. It adds a term, and its fees, before the main programme begins, and it carries a communications credit forward. It does not guarantee a seat.

Several of these lead to regulated professions: practical nursing to the College of Nurses of Ontario, massage therapy to the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario, dental hygiene to the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario and medical radiation technology to the College of Medical Radiation and Imaging Technologists of Ontario.

11. Graduate Certificates

Algonquin’s 13 graduate certificates in this guide are one year programmes for diploma and degree holders. All are on the PGWP list, but each supports a permit of about a year at most, so most Indian applicants use them as a specialism rather than as their main route to Canadian experience.

The co-op version of Cyber Security Analysis is open to domestic students only, so an international offer will be for the non co-op stream.

12. Degrees and Degree Pathways

This guide covers 14 four year degrees and 7 degree pathways. Degrees are exempt from the field of study rule, so each can support a PGWP of up to three years, and most include paid co-op work terms.

The pathways are different. They admit graduates of named Algonquin diplomas into a degree with advanced standing, which shortens the remaining study. That is good for cost, but the permit follows the length of study you actually complete, so confirm your entry level before assuming three years.

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing is the dearest degree at CAD 26,354 a year, offered in both Ottawa and Pembroke. The Bachelor of Child and Youth Care is the most affordable at CAD 16,165.

13. Pembroke and Perley Health

Pembroke is a small city in the Ottawa Valley, about two hours west of Ottawa. Rent is far lower, classes are smaller, and some programmes connect to local employers such as the nuclear research site at Chalk River. Part-time work is scarcer than in the capital.

Perley Health is a seniors care community in Ottawa where Algonquin teaches practical nursing and personal support work on site, with a May start only.

14. Regulated Careers and Protected Titles

Many of these need supervised work after graduation before the licence is issued, which is exactly what a PGWP pays for. The trades certificates are a weaker fit: an electrical or plumbing apprenticeship takes several years, far longer than the one year permit those certificates support.

15. Intakes for 2027

With Fall 2026 under way, the open windows for international students run through 2027. Across the 91 programmes there are 135 open intakes.

Several Spring starts are suspended or waitlisted for 2027, including Computer Programming and Analysis, Web Development and Internet Applications, Cloud Development and Operations, Dental Hygiene and Respiratory Therapy. Paramedic is closed for Fall 2027. These statuses change during the year, so check before paying.

16. Payment, Refunds and the Ten Day Rule

Algonquin charges a CAD 135 application fee. To secure your seat and your provincial attestation letter you pay the required fees by the deadline on your admissions letter.

If your study permit is refused, Algonquin refunds everything except a CAD 250 administrative fee, but only if the refusal letter is dated after your latest letter of acceptance and reaches the college within ten days of the date on the letter. Miss that window and the refund falls under the ordinary withdrawal rules.

Withdrawing for any other reason before the semester starts costs a CAD 2,200 penalty. After day ten of the semester there is no refund, and the full semester fees are owed. Algonquin allows only one deferral per student, and only if the required fees were paid by the admissions letter deadline.

17. Scholarships: What Is Actually Available

Algonquin’s own fees page describes scholarships for international students that recognise academic achievement once enrolled, awarded by GPA within each school, plus a leadership award and a small number of automatic academic scholarships. None is presented as an entrance award you can count on when budgeting.

Some agent listings describe an entrance scholarship of CAD 8,000 for degree students, spread over four years. We could not find it on any Algonquin page. If it appears on your offer, treat it as a bonus; if it does not, budget the full tuition.

18. Cost of Living in Ottawa and Pembroke

Ottawa is a large, bilingual capital, and housing dominates the student budget: one bedroom apartments were listed at an average of about CAD 1,960 a month in July 2026. Most students share, and Algonquin’s fee estimate already includes the transit U-Pass, which removes one large monthly cost. Pembroke is far cheaper to rent in, though it offers fewer part-time jobs.

The study permit threshold moved on 1 September 2026, when IRCC lifted the living cost figure for one person to CAD 23,448. That sum sits on top of your first year of Algonquin tuition and your flights.

19. Rankings and Reputation

Algonquin does not appear in world university rankings, because they measure universities rather than colleges. Positions quoted by comparison sites come from their own methods or from web presence indices, not from a recognised academic ranking.

The measures that apply to an Ontario college are research activity, programme accreditation and outcomes. Algonquin is listed among Canada’s top 50 research colleges and belongs to Polytechnics Canada. For an international applicant, the more useful questions are whether a programme is on the PGWP list, how long it runs, and whether it includes co-op: 17 programmes in this guide do.

20. Can You Bring Your Family?

A spouse or child can travel with you, but an Algonquin credential will not give your partner an open work permit. IRCC narrowed that benefit in January 2025 to students in master or doctoral programmes of at least sixteen months and a handful of professional degrees, and nothing Algonquin offers falls into those groups.

Bringing family also lifts the money you must show. A couple needs CAD 29,192 for living costs under the thresholds IRCC introduced on 1 September 2026, and each further family member adds more, all before tuition is counted.

21. What Other Algonquin Pages Get Wrong

22. How to Apply to Algonquin College

23. Is Algonquin College Good for Indian Students?

It suits you if

• You want a two or three year diploma in technology, engineering, health or community services, where every programme in this guide leads to a PGWP.
• You want an honours degree with co-op in commerce, engineering, building science or nursing.
• You want to study in Canada’s capital, with a transit pass and health insurance built into the fees.
• You would consider Pembroke for lower rent and smaller classes.

It does not suit you if

• You are set on business administration, accounting or marketing diplomas and need Canadian work afterwards.
• You are drawn to a 42 week diploma without realising the permit is about ten months.
• Your only English score is PTE.
• Your partner would need an open work permit during your studies.

24. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)