--- title: "How Does Canadian High School Education Prepare Students for University?" description: "In Türkiye, the final two years of high school are heavily shaped by the university entrance examination. If a student’s goal is to attend a good university, they are expected to prepare for the TYT and AYT alongside their regular schoolwork, solve large numbers of practice questions, take mock exams, and learn examination techniques." url: https://oihs.ca/en/blog/canadian-high-school-university-preparation lang: en date: 2026-10-07T20:40:35.253Z category: blog --- # How Does Canadian High School Education Prepare Students for University? In Türkiye, the final two years of high school are heavily shaped by the university entrance examination. If a student’s goal is to attend a good university, they are expected to prepare for the TYT and AYT alongside their regular schoolwork, solve large numbers of practice questions, take mock exams, and learn examination techniques. ## How Does Canadian High School Education Prepare Students for University? At the end of four years of high school, a student’s performance over the course of just a few hours largely determines which university and which program they can enter. The system does not work this way everywhere in the world. ## The Canadian Education System and the Ontario Model ## **The Canadian Education System and the Ontario Model** In this article, I will focus on the high school system in the Canadian province of Ontario. One clarification is necessary at the outset: Canada does not have a single national education system. Education is the responsibility of the provinces, and each province has its own system. Therefore, when I refer to the “Canadian high school system” in this article, I mean the system used in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Before discussing the characteristics of the Ontario education system, it is important to emphasize one point: Ontario is considered one of the world’s high-performing education systems in international comparisons. In the OECD’s PISA studies, Canada has consistently performed above the OECD average in mathematics, science, and reading, and Ontario is one of Canada’s stronger-performing provinces. The practices discussed below, therefore, are not merely educational ideas that sound appealing. They are components of an education system that produces strong results internationally. For example, in PISA 2022, Ontario scored 517 in science compared with the OECD average of 485, and Ontario also performed above the OECD average in mathematics and reading. One of the most important differences between the Ontario system and the system in Türkiye is that high school education is not viewed solely as preparation for a university entrance exam. Discovering the student’s areas of interest, designing their own educational pathway, conducting research, writing, developing projects, gaining technological and financial literacy, taking responsibility within the community, and making an informed decision about what they want to study at university—or whether they want to attend university at all—are also considered part of high school education. The transition to university is not dependent on a single centralized exam either. For this reason, the message the system gives students can largely be summarized not as “Prepare for the exam you will take at the end of four years,” but rather as “Prepare yourself for university and life throughout those four years.” ## **Course Selection in the Ontario High School System** One of the features I like about the Ontario high school system is the considerable freedom students have to choose their courses. Especially in Grades 11 and 12, courses begin to differ according to the student’s goals after high school. Students planning to attend university can take university-preparation courses, while students aiming for college can select college-preparation courses. There are also “open” courses designed to serve different objectives. The system deliberately encourages students to focus increasingly on their own interests and post-secondary goals during the final two years of high school. This approach has an important consequence: choosing courses also means beginning to plan a career. For example, a student considering engineering can focus on advanced mathematics, calculus, physics, and chemistry. A student considering business or economics can select economics, business, or accounting alongside mathematics. A student interested in psychology or the social sciences might choose introductory social sciences and philosophy. In my view, the important point here is not simply that students have many electives. Students are asked during their high school years: “What are you interested in, and what do you want to do next?” In Türkiye, students often encounter this question for the first time during the university preference period. The Ontario system tries to involve students in decisions about their education and their lives at a much earlier age. ## **Freedom Comes with Responsibility** Giving students significant freedom to choose within the Ontario system also brings responsibility. Students must decide which courses to take, investigate the prerequisites of university programs they may want to enter, and plan their academic pathway accordingly. Similarly, because a large proportion of a student’s grade is based on assignments, projects, presentations, and tests completed throughout the term, students are required to work consistently throughout the semester rather than studying intensively only during the final few weeks. Keeping track of deadlines, managing time, and accepting the consequences of their choices are the student’s own responsibilities. These are, in fact, the same skills that students will need at university and later in adult life, developed during their high school years. ## Career Planning in High School ## **Career Planning in High School** In Ontario, career planning is not an additional activity that students are expected to pursue outside school. It is an official part of the education system. Beginning in Grade 7, students develop an individual education and career plan known as an Individual Pathways Plan. The student’s interests, strengths, skills, and goals are included in this plan, which is reviewed at least twice a year. Ontario’s approach to career planning is based on four simple questions: * Who am I? * What opportunities are available to me? * Who do I want to become? * How do I get there? In Grade 10, career planning is a compulsory course for all students. Students investigate different occupations, education pathways, and the world of work; assess their own skills and interests; and plan their options after high school. Career fairs, workplace visits, conversations with professionals, job shadowing, and project-based activities may also support this process. I find the thinking behind this approach particularly important. University education is not an objective in itself. It is one stage in the student’s longer-term life and career plan. Therefore, students are not asked only, **“Which university can you get into?”** A more difficult question comes first: **“What do you want to do in the future?”** As students search for the answer to this question throughout high school, they gradually shape their courses, activities, and university choices around that answer. Career planning therefore stops being an exercise carried out a few months before university applications and becomes embedded throughout high school education. ## **Student-Centred Education** One of the important characteristics of the Ontario system is that education is student-centred. This concept is sometimes misunderstood. Student-centred education does not mean that students simply do whatever they want or that teachers move into the background. The curriculum and the learning outcomes students are expected to achieve remain clearly defined. The difference is that students take a more active role in the process of reaching those objectives. The teacher’s role is not simply to explain a topic and expect students to listen. Students are expected to ask questions, discuss, solve problems, conduct research, write, develop projects, and demonstrate what they have learned in different ways. Teachers monitor where students are struggling, provide feedback, and adapt their teaching methods to the student’s needs when necessary. This philosophy is also clearly visible in Ontario’s approach to assessment. Instead of being evaluated only at the end of the learning process, students receive feedback throughout that process. The objective is not simply to assign a grade based on how much the student has learned. Assessment is also used as a tool to help the student learn better. ## **Grades and Assessment Throughout the Term in Ontario High Schools** The most concrete result of this approach can be seen in the grading system. Beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, Ontario made written final examinations compulsory in most high school courses. However, the final exam represents only 25% of the student’s course grade. Most of the student’s performance is determined by work completed throughout the term. Depending on the course, this work may include: * assignments, * quizzes, * laboratory work, * research projects, * essays, * presentations, * problem-solving activities, * other performance tasks. Instead of telling students, “You learned this three months ago; now show us how much you remember in a two-hour exam,” the system gives students opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned at different times and in different ways throughout the term. In my view, one of the major advantages of this system is that it changes how students study. If a single exam at the end of the year determines your future, education naturally becomes focused on preparing for that examination. Learning question types, increasing speed, completing practice exams, and developing examination strategies become important. If your grade is based on work completed throughout the term, you need different study habits. You cannot leave a research assignment until the final day. You need to plan the project, identify sources, prepare a draft, and improve it based on feedback from your teacher. The following week, you may have another presentation or assessment. Success therefore depends more on consistency than on producing an exceptional performance on a single day. This system does not eliminate examinations entirely. Indeed, one reason Ontario made final exams compulsory again in 2026 was to prepare students for the examinations they will face in university and college. However, rather than placing exams at the centre of education, the system adds them to the student’s performance throughout the term. This distinction is particularly important for university preparation. At university, students are not expected only to perform well in exams. They must conduct research, write reports and essays, complete projects, give presentations, meet deadlines, and manage several tasks at the same time. Ontario’s continuous assessment system is therefore not simply a method for determining high school grades. It is also an educational tool that prepares students for the way they will be expected to work at university. ![](https://oihs.ca/assets/Kanada_Lise_Egitimi_5.webp) ## Learning How to Research Before Going to University ## **Learning How to Research Before Going to University** Another important part of university preparation in the Ontario system is learning how to conduct research. By research, I do not mean simply finding a few sources on Google and compiling information from them. Students are expected to formulate a question, identify appropriate sources, evaluate the reliability of those sources, compare different viewpoints, develop their own argument using the information they have gathered, and present their conclusions properly in written or oral form. These skills are not left to a single “research” course. Students encounter them repeatedly through essays and research assignments in English and social sciences, laboratory work in science courses, case studies in business and economics, and projects and presentations in many different subjects. Research therefore becomes a way of working that is integrated throughout high school education. Learning how to use sources is an important part of this process. Students need to understand that not everything found on the internet is equally reliable, distinguish between primary and secondary sources, cite the sources they use, and avoid presenting someone else’s ideas as their own. As a result, they encounter concepts such as citation and academic integrity during high school—concepts that they will face from their first day at university. The widespread use of artificial intelligence has made these skills even more important. Students can now generate a polished-looking piece of writing within seconds. But a text that looks convincing is not necessarily factually correct. Students need to question AI-generated information, verify it using reliable sources, and use technology not as a substitute for their own thinking, but as a tool that supports it. Research and source-evaluation skills are therefore no longer merely academic skills. They are also becoming fundamental forms of literacy in the age of artificial intelligence. This is where the value of research-based education in university preparation becomes particularly clear. University students are not expected simply to learn information presented to them. They need to read and evaluate academic articles, conduct literature searches, justify their own views, write reports and essays, and, when necessary, defend their work in class. The purpose of asking high school students to conduct research, therefore, is not simply to help them produce better assignments. Students begin learning how to learn at university before they actually arrive there. ## **Community Involvement Is Also Part of Graduation** Successfully completing courses is not enough to receive an Ontario high school diploma. Students must also complete at least 40 hours of community involvement activities. These activities can take many forms. A student may volunteer for a charity, participate in an environmental project, support activities for elderly people or children, or help organize an event for the school or local community. The important point is that the student is not being paid for this work but is dedicating part of their time to contributing to other people and the community in which they live. Forty hours is not a very large amount of time when considered across four years of high school. In my view, what matters more than the number of hours is the fact that Ontario has made community involvement a graduation requirement. The system therefore does not define high school graduation merely as passing certain courses and earning sufficient grades. There is another benefit for students. Through volunteering, young people work with people outside the school environment, take responsibility, communicate, and sometimes encounter social problems with which they were previously unfamiliar. Some students also discover their interests or gain greater insight into the careers they may want to pursue through these experiences. Community involvement is therefore not completely separate from career planning. A student volunteering in a hospital gains exposure to healthcare. A student working with children becomes more familiar with education. A student participating in an environmental initiative gains insight into sustainability. Once again, we see the same educational philosophy: High school is not simply a place where students accumulate academic knowledge. The objective is to develop young adults who are academically prepared for university, but who also take responsibility and engage with the society in which they live. ## Technology Literacy ## **Technology Literacy** It is easy to assume that today’s students already know how to use technology. Being comfortable with a smartphone, social media, or an app certainly requires a certain level of technological skill. But using technology and being technologically literate are not the same thing. Ontario has taken an important step in this area in recent years. Students who began Grade 9 in September 2024 or later must complete at least one technological education credit in Grade 9 or Grade 10 in order to earn the OSSD. Students can meet this requirement through different courses that combine technology with practical and career-related skills. The objective is for students to encounter technology at an earlier age not merely as users, but through problem solving, design, and production. Technology education is not limited to a single course either. Digital skills are integrated into other subjects. Students use technology to access information, conduct research, analyze data, solve problems, produce work, and collaborate with others. They encounter coding and data skills in mathematics and science courses and use digital tools for research, presentations, and projects across different subjects. Another indication of the importance Ontario places on technology is the requirement for students to complete at least two online learning credits before graduating from high school. Families can choose to opt out of this requirement, but one reason it was introduced was to help students develop digital literacy and independent learning skills. In my view, the goal is not to prepare students to use a particular software package. Technology changes very quickly. Some of the programs widely used today may no longer be important by the time a student graduates from university. The more lasting skill is the ability to learn a new technology, understand what it does, and use it appropriately to solve the right problem. Artificial intelligence makes this issue even more important. Students now need to learn not only how to search for information online, but also how to question, verify, and improve the answers they receive from artificial intelligence. Technology should not become a tool that thinks instead of the student. It should become a tool that helps the student think and produce more effectively. The relevance of these skills to university is clear. Today, university students in almost every field encounter research, data analysis, collaboration, presentation tools, and artificial intelligence. Technology literacy is therefore no longer a specialized skill required only by students planning to study computer engineering. It has become a fundamental competency needed by almost everyone going to university. In computational problem solving, measured for the first time in PISA 2025, Canada scored 525 points. The OECD average was 500, the United States scored 513, and Türkiye scored 473. Canada’s strong performance in this area suggests that its students are internationally competitive not only in science and mathematics knowledge, but also in their ability to use that knowledge to solve problems in digital environments. ## **Financial Literacy** Another area Ontario has placed particular emphasis on in recent years is financial literacy. Financial topics have actually been included in different parts of the Ontario curriculum for a long time. Students encounter issues they will use directly in everyday life, including: * budgeting, * saving, * bank accounts, * credit cards, * borrowing, * interest, * investing, * protecting themselves against financial fraud. Beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, Ontario went one step further. Students who began Grade 9 after the 2025–26 academic year must also meet a financial literacy graduation requirement to receive the OSSD. This assessment takes place within the compulsory Grade 10 career studies course, and students must achieve at least 70% on the module to pass. The result is also recorded on the student’s Ontario transcript. I believe this is an important development because financial decisions begin much earlier in a high school student’s life than we often assume. When students begin university, they may need to create a budget, use a bank account and credit card, understand scholarships or student loans, and manage accommodation expenses. Only a few years later, they may face much larger financial decisions involving salaries, taxes, investments, loans, and retirement. Yet a student may graduate from high school having studied trigonometry, organic chemistry, and world history without ever learning how interest on a credit card works, the real cost of borrowing, or how to prepare a basic budget. Ontario’s approach again reflects the same underlying philosophy: The purpose of high school is not simply to prepare students for the next exam. It is to prepare them for the next stage of their lives. Technology and financial literacy are two good examples. The first prepares students to learn and work in an increasingly digital world. The second helps them make more informed economic decisions as adults. ## **The Feeling of “I Can Do This”** Successfully completing an international high school program in English gives students something else as well: confidence. For a student living in Türkiye, following the same curriculum as students in Canada in English, preparing assignments and projects in English, and succeeding in courses assessed by Canadian teachers is an important experience. Students do not simply improve their English. They also develop the feeling: **“I can study in English, and I can succeed in another country’s education system in English.”** This confidence can make the transition to the academic and cultural environment they encounter when beginning university abroad much easier. ![](https://oihs.ca/assets/Kanada_Lise_Egitimi_3.webp) ## **University Admission Requirements in Ontario and Transition Without a Centralized Exam** Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the Ontario high school system from the perspective of Türkiye is that there is no centralized university entrance examination similar to the YKS. Universities evaluate students primarily according to the courses they took in high school and the grades they earned in those courses. Most Ontario university programs use six Grade 12 courses for admission. These generally include Grade 12 English, while programs such as engineering, business, and science may also require specific mathematics and science prerequisites. Depending on the university and program, students may also need to complete supplementary applications, portfolios, interviews, or other requirements. When students reach Grade 12, therefore, their goal is not simply to achieve a high average. The course selections they made earlier must also have been correct. A student planning to study engineering must have completed the necessary mathematics, physics, and chemistry courses on time. A student planning to study business must have taken the mathematics courses required by the relevant program. This takes us back to the course selection and career planning discussed earlier in the article. In the Ontario system, course selection, career planning, and university admission are not three separate issues. Students begin thinking about what they want to do, choose courses accordingly, and apply to university based on their performance in those courses. The absence of a centralized entrance examination does not mean there are no exams at all. Students take examinations throughout high school, and beginning in 2026–27, final examinations account for 25% of the course grade in most high school courses. However, the student’s future is not tied to their performance in a single nationwide exam lasting only a few hours on one day. I believe this has an important effect on education. Whatever the university admissions system measures is naturally what high school students prepare for. If university admission depends on a few hours of centralized testing, solving questions quickly and mastering examination techniques become particularly important. If universities consider the courses students take throughout high school and their performance in those courses, then consistent study, completing assignments, conducting research, developing projects, writing, and demonstrating knowledge in different ways become more important. For this reason, the absence of a centralized university entrance examination in Ontario should not be viewed merely as a way of reducing examination stress. The method used for university admissions shapes the entire high school education system backwards from that point. At the beginning of this article, we asked a question: Is the purpose of high school to prepare students for the university entrance examination, or to prepare them for university? The Ontario system’s answer is quite clear. ## **What Is the OSSD? International Recognition of the Ontario High School Diploma** At the end of this process, students become eligible to receive the **Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).** The OSSD is a high school diploma recognized in university admissions not only in Canada but in many countries around the world. Students can apply with the OSSD to universities in Canada and the United States as well as institutions in the United Kingdom and Europe. Of course, each country and university has its own admissions requirements. However, the qualification the student receives is not a certificate specific to an individual school. It is the official high school diploma of the Ontario education system. ## **Can Students in Türkiye Receive a Canadian High School Education?** Up to this point, what I have described may appear to have one major disadvantage for students living in Türkiye: It may seem that students need to attend high school in Canada in order to benefit from these opportunities. That is no longer necessary. Ontario allows inspected private schools that meet certain requirements to grant Ontario high school credits and provide programs leading to the OSSD. These programs may also be delivered online. As a result, a student living in Türkiye can continue attending their existing school while taking courses from the Ontario curriculum and, after completing the necessary requirements, earn the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) as a second high school diploma. When we established Ontario International High School (OIHS), our goal was to make this model accessible to students in Türkiye. OIHS is an Ontario private high school inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Education and authorized to grant OSSD credits. Our courses are delivered in English by Ontario-certified teachers based in Canada. Students can continue attending their high schools in Türkiye while joining live online classes in the evenings. However, in my view, what OIHS offers students is more than simply a second diploma. The course selection and career guidance, student-centred education, continuous assessment through assignments and projects, research and academic writing, community involvement, and technological and financial literacy discussed throughout this article are all elements of Ontario education. On the pathway to the OSSD, an OIHS student does not simply earn a second diploma. Before going to university, the student experiences the kind of academic work that will be expected from them once they get there. For this reason, I believe it is incomplete to measure the value of the OSSD solely by asking: **“Will this diploma help when applying to universities abroad?”** A more important question may be: **“How well does this education prepare the student for the way they will be expected to work from their first day at university?”** In my view, this is one of the Ontario system’s greatest strengths. It aims not only to prepare students to get into university, but also to succeed once they are there.