Wilfrid Laurier University

Wilfrid Laurier University, founded in 1911, has campuses in Waterloo, Brantford, and Milton, Ontario, and enrols 20,000+ students. It has a strong reputation in business through the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, and its Waterloo campus sits inside Canada’s tech and innovation corridor.

For Nepali students weighing business-focused degrees with a genuine job market attached, Laurier’s Waterloo location — within an hour of Toronto and surrounded by tech employers — is a big part of the appeal.

Laurier offers 100+ undergraduate programs spanning business & economics, science, music, arts, social sciences, social work, and education. The Lazaridis School is one of Canada’s largest business schools, known in particular for its co-op BBA program.

Laurier also offers a BBA/Computer Science double-degree in partnership with the University of Waterloo — a strong option if you want both a business credential and a technical one, though confirm current availability to international applicants directly with the program before applying.

Interested in Laurier’s business programs? See our guide to a BBA in Canada.

Laurier is a regular top-10 finisher in Maclean’s Comprehensive university category — check macleans.ca for the current year’s exact position. Globally, it sits in the THE 1201+ band and around #794 in the CWUR global rankings.

Business-school reputation and co-op outcomes are the stronger selling points here rather than overall global rank — Laurier’s name carries real weight with Ontario and GTA employers specifically.

Laurier accepts IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, and Duolingo for English proficiency; minimums vary by program, with IELTS 6.5 overall being the most commonly cited threshold — confirm the exact figure for your specific program on wlu.ca.

Required documents are academic transcripts, English proficiency proof, and a valid passport; some programs also require a supplementary application. If you want guaranteed first-year residence, apply and pay your deposit by June 1 — Laurier holds a firm deadline for this.

Check the full IELTS requirements for a Canada student visa before you book your test.

First-year international undergraduate tuition generally falls between CAD 14,114 and CAD 52,408 depending on program, with most students landing in the CAD 34,000–45,000 range — confirm your exact program’s rate on Laurier’s official tuition & finances page, since the spread is wide. Once enrolled, continuing-student tuition increases are capped at no more than 5% per year, which makes multi-year budgeting more predictable than at some other Ontario schools.

Scholarships: President’s Gold Award — CAD 6,000/year, renewable, automatic on admission; Laurier Scholars Award — CAD 40,000 total (only 7 awarded per year: CAD 7,500 × 4 years plus a CAD 10,000 experiential learning grant); Inspiring Lives Award — CAD 1,000–5,000; International High Achievers Award — CAD 3,000.

Laurier guarantees first-year residence at both the Waterloo and Brantford campuses. More unusually, it guarantees Laurier-managed housing for international undergraduate students for all four years of their degree (five years for select programs) — a rare commitment among Canadian universities that removes a major source of stress for students arriving from overseas.

Laurier’s “Golden Hawks” athletics and famously strong school spirit consistently show up in student experience surveys. The university hosts 1,500+ international students, contributing to a genuinely multicultural campus community.

The Waterloo region is home to major tech employers, which feeds directly into Laurier’s co-op pipeline, and Toronto is under an hour away for students who want big-city access on weekends.

Wilfrid Laurier University is a strong fit for business-focused Nepali students who want a respected co-op program, guaranteed multi-year housing, and easy access to Toronto’s job market from Waterloo’s tech corridor.

Goreto Educational Consultancy can help you confirm current tuition for your program, apply for Laurier’s scholarships, and plan your study permit process. Book a free consultation with Goreto to start your Wilfrid Laurier University application.

Comparing other Ontario options? See our profiles of Algoma University and University of Manitoba.