#1 Mount Allison University

Mount Allison’s picturesque New Brunswick setting provides an ideal environment for a liberal arts education that emphasizes critical-thinking skills and experiential learning.

Students appreciate Mount Allison’s relaxed atmosphere, small-town charm and smaller class sizes—especially in the upper years. This tight-knit environment breeds lifelong friendships and strong bonds with professors, who are readily available to engage with students. The campus is happily enmeshed within the walkable town of Sackville—it’s just a five-minute walk to downtown—and students enjoy a weekly farmers’ market from May to November, a vibrant music scene, and a variety of independent cafés, galleries and bookstores.

Mount Allison has more than 50 programs across various disciplines, including astronomy, biopsychology, environmental science, fine arts, screen studies and popular culture, and museum and curatorial studies. Its sought-after aviation program, offered in partnership with Moncton Flight College, is among the few in Canada where students can earn an undergraduate degree and get a commercial pilot’s licence at the same time. The university also has an impressive record of Rhodes Scholars, producing more per student than several much larger universities. Many influential Canadians got their start at Mount Allison, including CBC host Ian Hanomansing, epidemiologist and B.C. health officer Bonnie Henry, and Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain.

As a liberal arts and sciences university, Mount Allison aims to cultivate well-rounded students who are encouraged to explore a variety of courses to find subjects and faculty members that inspire them both in content and teaching style. The independent experiential learning credit lets upper-year students pitch their own off-campus experience at a company, government agency or non-profit organization where they can get academic credit while learning on the job.

More than 85 per cent of first-year students live on campus. For those who don’t, lunch and crafting clubs offer an opportunity to connect with others.

#2 University of Northern British Columbia

Founded in 1994, the University of Northern British Columbia may lack the traditional architecture of other Canadian schools, but the campus, perched on a hill and occasionally visited by local moose, is scenic nonetheless.

A nine-hour drive north of Vancouver in Prince George, UNBC serves rural communities with three additional campuses in Quesnel, Terrace and Fort St. John. It holds an affiliate agreement with the Wilp Wilo’oskwhl Nisa’a Institute, a post-secondary institution within the Nisa’a Treaty territory.

While many students are locals, including 14 per cent who are Indigenous, the school attracts community-focused and environmentally conscious students from across Canada and abroad, drawn by its close-knit academic environment and student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1. Notable programs include forest ecology and management, environmental engineering and nature-based tourism management.

#3 Acadia University

Located an hour from Halifax in the vibrant town of Wolfville, Acadia exudes classic college-town charm with a postcard-worthy campus overlooking the Annapolis Valley and the Bay of Fundy.

Students can choose from more than 200 undergraduate and graduate degree options, including studies in earth and environmental science that focus on field-based learning and research opportunities in the Bay of Fundy. The school’s 3,500 students shape their classroom experience by working with professors to design their majors.

In 2023, thanks to a partnership with Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Acadia’s first nursing students began their training. To obtain accreditation for a full and permanent nursing program in 2026, a new building is under construction, featuring a dry lab, clinic teaching spaces and simulation rooms.