Athabasca University

Athabasca, Canada · founded 1970 · 43,000 students · open distance

Known for: Athabasca University is Canada's leading open and online university, famous for its flexible, individualized study options and pioneering competency-based education models that allow students to start courses at any time of year.

Rankings

QS World: #801

Top programmes

Business Administration (MBA)
Nursing
Computing and Information Systems
Health Disciplines
Psychology
Governance

Notable alumni

Naomi Klein — Author, social activist, and filmmaker
W. Brett Wilson — Entrepreneur and Dragon's Den investor
Lydia Hwitsum — First Nations political leader
Katherine O'Neill — Journalist and former politician
Timothy Caulfield — Health policy and science communicator
Dale Schaffer — Canadian football player
Michele A. Sam — Indigenous scholar and filmmaker

Traditions

Virtual convocation ceremonies
Monthly course start dates
Online student association events

If Athabasca University were…

As a food: Instant ramen with your own additions — Cheap, accessible, requires no special equipment, and you customize it to your life—add an egg, some vegetables, make it yours. Athabasca gives you the base ingredients and you cook on your own schedule, wherever you are
As an athlete: Eliud Kipchoge — The marathon king who trains alone in remote Kenya and competes on his own terms, rewriting what's possible with discipline and self-direction. Athabasca students are solo endurance athletes of education, logging miles w
As a person alive today: Joe Rogan — Built an empire from a home studio with no traditional gatekeepers, reaching millions on his own schedule and terms. Athabasca strips away the campus theater and delivers education as a direct-to-consumer product for the
As a historical figure: Benjamin Franklin — Largely self-taught polymath who championed accessible education for working people and believed learning happened outside ivory towers. Athabasca embodies his vision: no prerequisites, no elitism, just open doors for th
As a movie or TV show: Nomadland — Chloé Zhao's portrait of people building meaningful lives on the margins, untethered from traditional structures, moving through vast landscapes on their own terms. Athabasca students are educational nomads, learning in
As a US president: Abraham Lincoln — Self-educated frontier lawyer who read by candlelight and became president without formal schooling, proving that grit and books beat pedigree. Athabasca is the university for modern Lincolns—people too busy living to si
As a city: Reykjavik — Remote, functional, unpretentious northern outpost where nobody goes for the glitz—you go because it gets the job done in harsh conditions. Athabasca the town has 3,000 people; Athabasca the university has 40,000 student
As an element: Hydrogen — The simplest, most abundant element in the universe—ubiquitous, essential, no frills. Athabasca is the elemental building block of higher education: pure access, stripped of everything but the learning itself.
As a car: Toyota Sienna Hybrid — Athabasca is the remote-start minivan for working parents—supremely flexible, self-paced climate control, and designed for people juggling careers and kids across Canadian time zones. It's not sexy, but it gets degrees d

Campus life

As a fully open and online university, student life is decentralized with learners across Canada and worldwide. Students engage through digital platforms, with flexibility to study at their own pace while balancing work and personal commitments. The community is largely composed of working adults and career-changers.

The film, scored

This profile answers “if Athabasca University were a movie or TV show?” with Nomadland (2020). Chloé Zhao's portrait of people building meaningful lives on the margins, untethered from traditional structures, moving through vast landscapes on their own terms. Athabasca students are educational nomads, learning in truck cabs, kitchen tables, and oil-patch trailers across the Canadian frontier. It sits in the 52nd percentile on rankquant, which re-centres every critic score on the reviewer who gave it, so a percentile means position against peers rather than a raw star average. The full film & TV catalogue ranks the rest the same way.