Durham College

Durham College is one of the few Ontario colleges where the Indian applicant’s biggest question has a clean answer for most programmes. Of the 66 programmes in this guide, 65 sit on the college’s own post-graduation work permit list, and every one of them has an intake open to international students in 2027.

The catch lies in what is left out. Durham’s page of programmes for international students lists 57 further programmes that do not appear on its PGWP list, among them the accounting, finance, marketing and human resources business diplomas, police foundations, paralegal, hospitality and event planning. They remain open for applications, and an offer for any of them will not lead to a work permit.

The second catch is length. A PGWP mirrors the programme behind it, and 20 of the programmes here run less than two years. An eight month certificate at Durham earns an eight month permit, however well it is marketed.

Three things set Durham apart from most Ontario colleges in 2026 and 2027.

It accepts PTE Academic for almost everything, with a published minimum of 53 for diplomas and 60 for degrees and graduate certificates. The exceptions are practical nursing and communicative disorders assistant, which accept only IELTS or TOEFL.

Every international student gets an entrance scholarship automatically: CAD 2,000 on accepting the offer, plus CAD 1,000 in year two for programmes of two years or more.

It now awards three year bachelor’s degrees, a credential Ontario colleges were only recently allowed to offer, in cybersecurity, construction management and human resources.

What this guide covers

1. Durham College at a glance
2. Which Durham programmes lead to a PGWP
3. The 57 Durham programmes that do not lead to a Work permit
4. Short programmes: eight month permits
5. Durham College fees for international students
6. The automatic entrance scholarship
7. Admission requirements for Indian students
8. English requirements, including PTE
9. The separate test you need for the PGWP
10. Three year and honours Bachelor’s degrees
11. Ontario Tech University transfer routes
12. Health and community programmes
13. Whitby campus: trades, food and farming
14. Regulated careers and licences
15. Budget pressure and suspended programmes
16. Intakes and start dates for 2027
17. Application fee, payment and refunds
18. Cost of living in Oshawa and Whitby
19. Bringing a spouse or children
20. Rankings and reputation
21. What other Durham College pages get wrong
22. How to apply to Durham College
23. Is Durham College a good choice for Indian students?
24. Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

1. Durham College at a Glance

Durham College opened in Oshawa in September 1967 with 205 students and sixteen portable classrooms. It is now a public college of about 13,700 full-time students, with its main campus on Simcoe Street North in Oshawa and a second campus in Whitby, about fifteen minutes west, which opened in 1993. Both towns sit roughly an hour east of downtown Toronto along Highway 401 and the Lakeshore East GO train line.

Its president since 2024 is Dr Elaine Popp. The college bought the naming rights to the Oshawa GO station in 2022, which is now called Durham College Oshawa GO, and it was named one of Greater Toronto’s top employers in 2025.

2. Which Durham Programmes Lead to a PGWP

Since November 2024, a college diploma or certificate only counts for a PGWP if its field of study appears on IRCC’s eligible list, identified by a CIP code. Bachelor’s degrees are exempt from that test. Durham publishes its own list, with the programme code and CIP code side by side, and IRCC kept the national list unchanged through 2026.

Every programme in this guide except one appears on that list. The exception is Horticulture Technician, which Durham’s PGWP page shows as suspended and not eligible even though its programme page still displays an international intake. We have kept it in the guide so you can see the conflict, and flagged it as not PGWP eligible.

Horticulture Technician is counted among the diplomas above but should be treated as having no permit until Durham updates its list.

3. The 57 Durham Programmes That Do Not Lead to a Work Permit

The two lists on Durham’s website do not match. Its page of programmes open to international students includes the programmes below, but none of them appears on its PGWP list. For most of them the reason is the field of study: business, marketing, media, hospitality and justice programmes lost PGWP eligibility at college level when the field of study rule came in.

The office administration programmes are delivered fully online, which rules out a PGWP on its own, and the PSW to practical nursing bridge is not on the list even though both regular practical nursing streams are.

4. Short Programmes: Eight Month Permits

17 programmes in this guide run two semesters, about eight months. They all sit on the PGWP list, but a permit cannot outlast its programme, so each points to roughly eight months of open work after graduation.

Eight months is enough to test the Canadian job market but not enough for most permanent residence routes, which usually want a year of skilled work. Students who start with a short programme often stack a second one: IRCC can combine two eligible programmes of at least eight months each, completed within two years, into a longer permit. Plan that from the start, because the second programme needs its own study permit and attestation letter.

5. Durham College Fees for International Students

Most Durham programmes sit at almost the same price point. Across the 66 programmes here, recorded first year tuition runs from CAD 15,308 to CAD 23,233, and CAD 15,489 is the figure you will see most, on 32 of them. Durham shows the exact tuition and ancillary fees on the Costs tab of each programme page and offers a fee estimator by semester.

Programmes that run straight through the year cost more in year one because the first year covers three semesters instead of two. That explains Massage Therapy at about CAD 23,233 and the three semester graduate certificates at about CAD 17,839.

6. The Automatic Entrance Scholarship

Durham’s global entrance scholarship needs no separate application. Any international applicant who accepts an offer for a full-time programme and pays international fees qualifies, and the college credits CAD 2,000 to the student account on acceptance. Programmes of two years or more earn a further CAD 1,000 in year two.

The conditions are simple but strict. You must add your Social Insurance Number to your MyDC account before the second semester, you cannot take an unscheduled gap between semesters, and transferring to another programme before you finish ends eligibility for the second payment. There is no cash alternative.

The current terms cover intakes up to January 2027. Durham changed the split in 2025, when it paid CAD 1,500 in each of the first two years, so check the version that applies to your offer letter.

7. Admission Requirements for Indian Students

Durham’s academic bar is modest for most programmes: Class 12 at 50 percent covers 53 of the 66 in this guide. Honours degrees ask a 65 percent average across six Grade 12 subjects, the three year construction management degree asks 60 percent, and the two pre-health pathways ask 55 percent.

Subject rules matter more than the overall average. Technology and trades programmes want Grade 12 mathematics, practical nursing asks 60 percent in English and 65 percent in mathematics with biology and chemistry, and graphic design needs a visual arts credit or a portfolio.

8. English Requirements, Including PTE

Durham uses three English bands. 46 of the programmes in this guide use the standard band, 17 use the higher band for graduate certificates, degrees and compressed or fast-track study, and 3 use the nursing band.

The nursing band applies to Practical Nursing, its weekend stream and the Communicative Disorders Assistant graduate certificate. Personal Support Worker lists IELTS, TOEFL and Duolingo at the standard band but no PTE score, so confirm with Durham before booking PTE for that programme.

Child and Youth Care (compressed) and the two fast-track programmes fall under the higher band because Durham applies it to all compressed study, even where entry is straight from Class 12.

9. The Separate Test You Need for the PGWP

Your admission score does not count towards the work permit. At PGWP stage IRCC wants a fresh result from an approved test, no older than two years, showing CLB 5 in all four skills for college credentials or CLB 7 for bachelor’s degrees.

For a two year diploma that begins in September 2027, the admission test will be close to three years old by graduation, so budget for a second test in your final semester in Oshawa or Whitby.

10. Three Year and Honours Bachelor’s Degrees

Ontario began allowing colleges to award three year bachelor’s degrees, and Durham now runs 3 of them alongside 5 honours degrees. Degrees are exempt from the field of study rule, so each can support a PGWP of up to three years, although the language bar rises to CLB 7.

The three year degrees run seven semesters with a work term. The honours degrees run nine semesters over four years with field placements, and the paralegal degree leads to licensing with the Law Society of Ontario.

11. Ontario Tech University Transfer Routes

Two diplomas in this guide are built as transfer programmes into Ontario Tech University, which shares the Oshawa campus. Supply Chain and Operations - Business - Transfer leads into the Bachelor of Commerce (Hons), and Computer Systems Technician - Transfer leads into the Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons). Graduates who meet Ontario Tech’s grade requirements enter with credit.

The route is attractive, but it has two practical consequences. A move to the university needs a new study permit and a new attestation letter, and the PGWP clock should be planned across both programmes so that your final credential supports the longest possible permit.

12. Health and Community Programmes

Health and community programmes make up a large part of Durham’s PGWP list. Almost all of them include placements in hospitals, long term care, schools or community agencies, and those placements need a police check with vulnerable sector screening, immunisations and CPR before you start.

Practical Nursing is the one to watch. Durham has closed its January and May 2027 intakes to international applicants, leaving September 2027 for the regular stream. The weekend stream is still open for May 2027, but it runs about 75 weeks, which points to a permit of about seventeen months.

13. Whitby Campus: Trades, Food and Farming

The Whitby campus is where Durham teaches its skilled trades, construction and food programmes. It includes the Ontario Power Generation Centre for Skilled Trades and Technology, a 60,000 square foot building opened in 2022, and the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, home of the student run Bistro ’67 restaurant and an urban farm with greenhouses, orchards and an apiary. A 68 bed residence sits on site.

Gas Technician 2 needs a valid Oil Burner 3 licence, or at least 75 percent on the Oil Burner 3 practical evaluation, before entry, and students without a Gas Technician 3 licence cannot join the placement or challenge the G2 exam.

14. Regulated Careers and Licences

A PGWP is what lets graduates gain the supervised hours these licences demand. The trades certificates fit this poorly: an electrical or plumbing apprenticeship takes several years, and an eight month permit covers only the start of it.

15. Budget Pressure and Suspended Programmes

Like every Ontario college, Durham has been squeezed by frozen provincial funding and the federal cap on study permits. In March 2025 it announced 30 voluntary retirements, the elimination of 35 full-time support and administrative positions and 49 vacancies left unfilled, and it has since suspended some semester intakes.

Durham’s PGWP page marks several programmes as suspended: Advertising - Digital Media Management, Interactive Media Design, Film and Motion Design - Media Fundamentals, Project Management - Information Technology, Supply Chain Management - Canadian Context and Horticulture Technician. None of these except Horticulture Technician appears in this guide.

For applicants, the lesson is to trust the intake table on the live programme page over any brochure or agent list, because Durham updates availability term by term.

16. Intakes and Start Dates for 2027

Fall 2026 classes began on 8 September 2026, so the realistic windows now are Winter, Spring and Fall 2027. Across the 66 programmes there are 94 open intakes, and 46 programmes take international students at only one point in the year.

Durham opens applications for September 2027, January 2028 and May 2028 in late September 2026. Popular programmes can move to waitlisted for international applicants well before the deadline, as Carpentry and Renovation Technician and Non-Destructive Evaluation did for Fall 2026.

17. Application Fee, Payment and Refunds

Durham charges a CAD 100 application fee, which is not refundable. After you accept an offer, the provincial attestation letter is released once your first semester fees are paid, and you need that letter for the study permit application.

If your study permit is refused, Durham deducts an administration fee of CAD 200 and refunds the rest when you submit the refusal letter with the withdrawal form. New students who withdraw for any other reason face a deduction of about CAD 2,700, and requests must arrive by 11:59 pm Eastern on day ten of the semester. Returning students who withdraw lose CAD 250. Refunds take six to eight weeks and go back by the route you paid, such as Flywire or wire transfer.

18. Cost of Living in Oshawa and Whitby

Rents in Durham Region sit well below Toronto. One bedroom apartments in Oshawa were listed at an average of about CAD 1,684 a month in August 2026, and most students cut that sharply by sharing a house near the Simcoe Street campus. The GO train connects Oshawa and Whitby to Union Station in about an hour.

IRCC raised the living cost figure for study permits on 1 September 2026. A single applicant must now show CAD 23,448 on top of first year tuition and travel, and a couple must show CAD 29,192.

19. Bringing a Spouse or Children

Your family can come with you, but no Durham programme gives your partner an open work permit. Since January 2025 that benefit is reserved for spouses of master and doctoral students in programmes of sixteen months or longer and a short list of professional degrees, and Durham’s degrees are not among them.

Children can attend public school in Ontario, but every family member adds to the funds you must show, so a family application is far more expensive than a single one.

20. Rankings and Reputation

Colleges do not appear in world university rankings, and the positions quoted on comparison sites for Durham come from web visibility indices rather than academic rankings. The measures that matter for a college are programme accreditation, co-op and placement links, and graduate outcomes.

On those measures Durham does well locally. Its Whitby trades centre is named for Ontario Power Generation, it sits beside the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations that hire its technicians, and 19 programmes in this guide include a co-op option or a work term.

21. What Other Durham College Pages Get Wrong

22. How to Apply to Durham College

23. Is Durham College a Good Choice for Indian Students?

Durham suits you if

• You want a two or three year diploma in computing, engineering technology, trades, health or community services.
• You hold a PTE score and want a college that accepts it for most programmes.
• You like the idea of a three year bachelor’s degree or a transfer route into Ontario Tech University.
• You would rather pay Durham Region rents than Toronto rents, with a train into the city.

Durham does not suit you if

• You are set on accounting, finance, marketing or HR diplomas and need a work permit afterwards.
• You plan an eight month certificate and expect a three year permit.
• You want practical nursing in January or May 2027.
• Your partner would need an open work permit while you study.

24. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)