Private career colleges
Your time to complain is already running.
In Alberta you have six months from your last day of attendance to bring a complaint to the provincial regulator. Most students find that out after it has expired.
Enter three details. See exactly how long is left.
Check your deadlines
Nothing you type leaves your browserNot the day you enrolled, and not the day you complained. Attendance is what starts the clock.
What to do next
- Save everything todayYour enrolment contract, receipts, emails, and screenshots of the pages that made the promises. Colleges edit their websites once a dispute starts. A screenshot with a date is evidence; a memory is not.
- Complain to the college in writingEvery regulator expects you to use the college's own complaint process first, and to be able to prove you did. Ask them for their written complaint procedure — they are required to give it to you.
- File with the regulator before your window closesIn Alberta that is the Private Career Colleges and Compliance Branch, at pcc.compliance@gov.ab.ca. Filing a thin complaint on time beats a perfect one filed late.
Alberta's rules are changing. The Private Vocational Training Amendment Act received Royal Assent in November 2025 and is expected to come into force through fall 2026, phased. It creates a student tuition protection fund and new obligations for colleges. The six-month complaint window is unchanged as of 21 September 2026 — if you are near your deadline, act on the rule that exists today.
What this covers
Complaints that fit
- Job-placement or salary claims that turned out to be false
- Accreditation or certification that does not exist
- Refunds refused or never paid
- Programs cancelled or materially changed
- Undisclosed or improper fees
- Terms of the enrolment contract broken
Goes somewhere else
- Grade appeals — the college's academic process
- Discrimination or harassment — provincial human rights commission
- Public colleges and universities — their own ombudsperson
- Anything needing legal advice — a lawyer, and we will say so plainly