Your student-paid co-op fee funds the delivery of the co-op program at Waterloo. Like tuition, this fee is required if you are enrolled in a co-op program. You’ll pay the fee in installments throughout your time at Waterloo. All undergraduate co-op students pay the co-op fee — as do graduate students whose co-op programs are supported by Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE). If you don’t see your CEE-supported graduate program listed, check out the information for graduate students section for a list of graduate co-op programs supported by their respective program/department.
Your co-op fee represents the cost of running the co-op program (including the WE Accelerate option for undergraduate students) at Waterloo. We review the co-op fee amount each year to align with projected costs and determine whether an increase is needed. Factors such as service improvements, inflation and salary increases influence the co-op fee. The review process includes consultation with students and input on the services that the co-op fee funds. In recent years, the co-op fee has increased very modestly (from May 2020 to April 2024, the average annual increase was 0.7%). These factors contributed to our ability to keep these increases small:
- The Ontario Government’s Bill 124 limited salary increases to 1% annually from 2020 to 2023. The bill has since been repealed and staff salaries have now increased significantly. Salary costs, including benefits, comprise approximately 80% of the total annual cost of running the co-op program and have a material impact on co-op fee increases.
- For two years, during the pandemic, CEE and the University received temporary federal government funding through the Student Work Placement Program to fund co-op roles.
- The switch to a virtual work environment during the pandemic resulted in significant cost savings including a reduction in travel costs (staff travel to visit employers and students as well as for business development and professional development purposes).
CEE department directly incurs most of the costs of running the co-op program. These costs include salaries, technology, communication and marketing, supplies, promotion and advertising, business development, travel and other similar costs.
At the University level, additional costs are incurred centrally. The central costs include benefits (e.g., health and dental insurance), space occupancy expenses (e.g. water, heat, electricity) and CEE’s use of other University services such as Human Resources, Finance, etc.
Your co-op fee is intended to recover both the direct and centrally incurred expenses of running the co-op program at the University.
Throughout CEE, we continuously work to reduce our costs. However, like most things in our current economy, the cost of securing co-op jobs and running the Co-operative Education program has increased significantly.
Cost-saving measures
The following list outlines some of the cost-saving measures the Co-operative Education department is taking to minimize the co-op fee increase:
- Realigning co-op advisors by faculty to put students at the centre
- Stopping incremental hires and examining hiring needs to minimize costs while maintaining service levels
- Workforce planning with a goal of fiscal restraint
- Analyzing our business development expenses to ensure the greatest return possible
- Reducing expenses
- Reducing the office space we use on campus to lower occupancy costs
- Reducing travel costs (including limiting in-person employer and student visits, focusing on virtual connections and decreasing the number of in-person meetings)
The co-op fee is the primary source of funding for Co-operative Education. Other funding sources outside of the fee are used for specific projects (e.g., Co-op for Community funds student salaries to work at non-profit organizations).
We understand that students also feel the strain of the current economic situation. Our priority is to keep the co-op fee as low as possible while still offering you valuable service and responsibly managing our costs.
We are committed to transparency, fiscal responsibility and providing accurate and up-to-date information about your co-op fee on this page. If you have questions about your co-op fee, please use this form.
Your 2025/2026 co-op fee amount and breakdown
The co-op fee amount for 2025/2026 is $817. This amount represents a $31, or four per cent (4%), increase from 2024/2025. Please note that this revised increase is less than the 10% co-op fee increase we initially proposed in November 2024.
Co-operative Education determined this amount using our annual financial analysis and fee-setting process, which includes student consultations. The fee was approved by the Board of Governors in February 2025.
As a co-op student, you’ll pay the co-op fee multiple times throughout your degree. To be clear, the co-op fee is not a "job-finding fee" per work term. It is a pro-rated fee that, throughout a student's degree, recovers the full costs associated with running the co-op program.
Your academic program determines when the co-op fee appears as a charge on your account in Quest. The cost of participating in co-op is spread throughout your degree to minimize the fees you’ll need to pay in any given term.
Co-op fee allocation
Here is a breakdown of the $817 co-op fee amount. We’ve sorted every role and expense funded by your co-op fee into seven distinct categories of work/costs.
Co-op fee by program
The number of times you pay the co-op fee varies by program. The co-op fee is associated with your enrollment in the co-op program (like tuition). It is not a "job-finding fee" per work term. Instead, it represents the cost of running the co-op program and is spread out over a number of terms.
The following information shows when you’ll start to pay the fee and for how many times you’ll need to pay the fee (per program) throughout your undergraduate or graduate career. If you extend your program for additional academic terms, you will not pay additional co-op fees. The number of times you pay the fee (per program) is shown in the “Total times paid” column below. You can get an estimated total cost by multiplying the current fee by the number of times you pay. For example:
- $817 x 8 = $6,536
- $817 x 6 = $4,902
- $817 x 5 = $4,085
- $817 x 4 = $3,268
- $817 x 3 = $2,451
- $817 x 2 = $1,634
Note: The $817 co-op fee amount is for the 2025/26 fiscal year only (May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026) - it is reviewed annually and is subject to change. Visit the Tuition Fee Schedule to find out your fees based on your program and the current term.