Humber Polytechnic has been named the top college in Toronto, and the third best in Ontario, according to a report by CourseCompare.
CourseCompare is known as Canada’s marketplace for education and serves more than two million students from more than 100 countries each year.
Humber Polytechnic takes the first place ballot for top institutes in Toronto, which puts them ahead of George Brown College, which takes the second place spot and Seneca Polytechnic, which claims third place for the city. Humber is behind Conestoga and Mohawk colleges on the provincial list.
There are 24 public colleges in Ontario. The rankings for this year look at more than 45 categories, such as business schools, online universities, trade schools, and co-op programs.
The two-year Esthetician/Spa Management program is recognized as an approved beauty education institute by the Ontario Beauty Council and helps Humber claim the title of the fifth-best esthetician school for 2025.
As for interior design programs and schools, Humber’s four-year Bachelor of Interior Design programs help get the institute to third in all of Canada, just trailing the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) interior design program and Sheridan College’s four-year, Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) accredited Interior Design program.
“The rankings are based on data that informs career readiness,” said Jessica Robinson, the content marketing manager at CourseCompare.
“So enrolment data, placement rates, thousands of verified student ratings on faculty, curriculum, career support, just like the overall learning experience,” she said.
Robinson said employer reputation scores, graduate salary, graduation rates and anything that indicates how equipped graduates are for success in the market are factors.
“Humber was our single most awarded school,” she said.
“Humber made it onto 20 different rankings out of 46 total, that’s the most of any institution, college, university or otherwise,” Robinson said.
She said in six of those rankings, Humber was in the top three and they were in the top five in 12 rankings.
“Just a really strong showing that indicates areas of strength for Humber,” Robinson said.
She said because of its well-rounded offerings, Humber has a strong showing in terms of being number one in colleges in Toronto and number three in colleges in Ontario.
“What it allows it to do as an institution is address the very quickly evolving needs of both students, prospective students and industry,” Robinson said.
“Humber is large enough with the diversified enough set of offerings that it’s agile and able to develop new courses that respond to those needs effectively,” she said.
She thinks it shows Humber is competitive, not just locally but provincially.
“It shows that its offerings are responding to the needs of the job market of industry and prospective students and graduates,” Robinson said. “Humber was ranked number one for digital marketing certifications and number two for early childhood education programs.
“The visibility that Humber gets for being on these rankings is absolutely, we hope, going to contribute to strong enrolment in years to come,” Robinson said.
James Freier, a Film and Television student at Humber, says he has had a great experience in his program.
“Humber is far above the rest as far as Toronto options go,” Freier said.
He said there are many things at Humber that nobody can get elsewhere.
“Starting out, it took a little bit of getting used to but over time I’ve figured out there’s a lot of benefits to going to Humber,” said Vickram Harrinarain, a first-year electrical engineering technology control systems student at Humber.
“I’ve really liked the gym they provide. A lot of the time, in between classes, I’ll go to the gym, play intramural sports, play basketball, play volleyball,” he said.
Harrinarain said he likes how Humber has a free weight system, cardio room and clubs that have different offerings for students.
“There’s the spirituality and wellness club, I go and check that out whenever they have events,” he said.
Harrinarain said the LinX lounge is another cool spot where students can go.
“I often go there to play pool, go chill with my friends and I feel like Humber has so many options where students can just be out of the classroom and relax, de-stress and just be themselves,” he said.
Harrinarain said Humber being number one in Toronto is a bit of a shock to him.
“If Humber's number one, then I’m actually, really happy because it shows that it’s setting the standard for colleges and hopefully give the same opportunities to other colleges,” he said.
“Third in Ontario is a pretty big thing.”
Harrinarain feels when the rankings only focus on Toronto, it would just be a small group, but when it’s provincial it would be “kind of a big deal.”
“I’m looking to achieve a lot of my own self-personal goals,” he said.
“I feel like Humber helps me achieve that with its gym program, like just having access to the gym, access to coming in and playing sports,” Harrinarain said.
He feels he can achieve goals such as meeting people in different areas, and different fields and just getting some outreach career-wise.
“I feel very satisfied with what Humber is doing right now,” Harrinarain said.
