# Athabasca University housing: why you probably don't need to move

AU has no residence and no need for one: 36,000 students study from home. Rent in Athabasca, Edmonton, and Calgary, plus where to stay if you travel in for a science lab.

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Every other university guide on this site starts with residence rates. This one starts differently: Athabasca University has no residence, no dorms, and no meal plan, because AU is an online university. Its roughly 36,000 students study from home, in all ten provinces and three territories, and 88% of its Canadian students live in cities. The average undergrad is 32 and 81% work while they study.

That means your housing decision at AU is the one you already made. You study where you live. This guide covers the exceptions: rent if you do want to relocate, and where to stay when a course pulls you onto campus.

## When you actually have to be somewhere

AU's physical footprint is small for a university its size:

- The main campus sits in Athabasca, a town of about 2,800 people roughly 145 km north of Edmonton.
- The Edmonton Learning Centre is downtown, in the Peace Hills Trust Tower at 109 Street and 102 Avenue.
- The Calgary Learning Centre is on the 6th floor of the Bow Valley College building at 345 6 Avenue SE.

For most programs, you never visit any of them. The main exception is science courses with lab requirements: some biology, chemistry, and physics courses require in-person lab work in Athabasca or at the Edmonton Learning Centre, usually compressed into a few intensive days. AU publishes a list of suggested accommodations for lab students, including a $50 a night billet at the ARC Ministry Centre in Athabasca. If your program includes labs, budget a few hundred dollars in travel and lodging per lab course, and check whether your course offers a lab travel award.

Everything else, from registration to exams, happens remotely. Even exams are usually invigilated online through ProctorU or a local invigilator you arrange yourself.

## If you do want to move

Some students want a fresh start, or want to be near a learning centre for library access and in-person support. Here's what rent looks like in 2026:

| Location | What you'll pay |
|---|---|
| Athabasca (town) | About $1,013/month for a 2-bedroom |
| Edmonton | $1,300 for a 1-bedroom, $1,600 for a 2-bedroom |
| Calgary | About $1,580 for a 1-bedroom, $1,970 for a 2-bedroom |

Athabasca is by far the cheapest of the three, and a 2-bedroom there costs less than a 1-bedroom in Edmonton. But there's no student community to plug into, because AU students in town are as remote as everyone else. If you're moving for AU, Edmonton is the more practical pick: it has the larger learning centre, LRT and bus access, a real rental market, and an Edmonton Public Library card that gets you borrowing privileges at AU and across Alberta libraries through the TAL system.

## If you stay put

Most AU students stay home, and the budget question becomes different: how much of your rent is study space, and how much do you spend making home study work?

- **Claim the study space.** If you work or study from home, part of your utilities and internet can count as eligible costs on Student Aid applications, and self-employed students can claim a home-office share on taxes. Know your numbers before you apply.
- **Budget for groceries, not a meal plan.** There is no campus food. AU's own bursary worksheets budget a single student living away at $1,128 a month for rent, utilities, food, and transport combined, which is a reasonable benchmark if you're applying for awards.
- **Set up a real workspace.** A secondhand desk and a decent chair beat studying from a bed over a six-month course contract. It's the one-time housing spend that actually pays off.
- **Borrow your library, don't buy your books.** Course materials are included in AU fees, and your AU library card gets you in-person borrowing at universities across Canada through the CURBA agreement.

## Roommates still make sense

The cheapest way to fund an AU degree is the cheapest way to live anywhere: split housing. A room in a shared Edmonton place runs $600 to $800 a month, against $1,300 for a one-bedroom. Over a 120-credit degree taken a course at a time, that difference is several courses' worth of tuition. Since nobody at AU needs to live near campus, you can share a place anywhere in the country and get the same education.

## The bottom line

Housing is where studying at AU saves the most money. No residence, no meal plan, no moving across the province unless a lab course demands it. Pick the place you can already afford, set up a corner of it that works for studying, and put the rent you didn't spend on a dorm toward tuition instead.

## Sources

- [AU campuses and locations](https://www.athabascau.ca/contact/campuses.html)
- [AU science lab accommodations](https://www.athabascau.ca/science-and-technology/resources/centre-for-science/labs/science-lab-accommodations/index.html)
- [Athabasca average rent](https://regionaldashboard.alberta.ca/region/athabasca/average-residential-rent)
- [Edmonton rent report](https://www.sqrft.ca/rent-report/edmonton-july-2026)
- [Alberta rental market report](https://albertalandlord.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ARLA-Public-Report_FINAL.pdf)
- [AU library borrowing](https://www.athabascau.ca/library/how-to-use-the-library/borrowing-resources.html)
- [AU at a glance](https://www.athabascau.ca/about-au/glance.html)